Self-mixing interferometry based on all phase FFT for high-precision displacement measurement

Abstract Self-mixing interferometry is an extreme simple and compact laser technique to develop non-contact displacement sensors. In order to enhance the precision of this type of sensor, an improved FFT algorithm, based on all phase FFT instead of conventional FFT, has been proposed to provide a phase reference for self-mixing displacement measurement system which has only single light path and lacks reference. The principle and the experimental realization of the proposed algorithm have been presented. The operation mechanism utilizes all phase FFT, which can estimate the phase from signal accurately, to achieve phase reference when the external target is held stationary and then compensate this reference to the phase when the target starts to move. Resultant displacement value reflects the actual position of the target. Reconstruction errors are on the order of nanometers in the displacements ranging from 100 nm to 1 μm. Therefore, the proposed method can find application in displacement measurement in industrial and scientific environments.