Regular paper

[OPTICAL REVIEW Vol. 6, No. 5 (1999) 443-448]

Heterodyne Interferometers Using Orthogonally Polarized and Two-Frequency Shifted Light Sources with Super-high Extinction Ratio

Noboru NAKATANI

Department of Industrial Education, Ashiya University, 13-22, Rokurokuso-cho, Ashiya, Hyogo, 659-8511 Japan

(Received March 2, 1999; Accepted May 11, 1999)

This paper describes heterodyne interferometers using orthogonally polarized and two-frequency shifted light sources of two types with super-high extinction ratio to reduce non-linearity of the interferometer due to polarization cross-talk. The acousto-optic modulators are used to shift light frequency. In the first interferometer the light source with Glan-Thomson prisms of very high extinction ratio (50 dB) is used to make the polarization cross-talk very small. In the second interferometer the light source of two-frequency shifted beams with small crossing angle (2.5 mrad~10 mrad) is used to completely exclude non-linearity of the interferometer due to polarization cross-talk. By measuring the thickness of vacuum evaporation film, it was demonstrated that the interferometers are useful to measure thickness of a thin film in nanometer order.

Key words: heterodyne interferometer, frequency shifted light source, high extinction ratio, non-linearity, polarization cross-talk

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