Method for producing time marks at any points on moving components

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for generating time markers of arbitrary points on moving components, and also to an optical trigger device for carrying out the method, as illustrated in FIG. 1. According to the invention, light from a broadband light source (1) with a correspondingly short coherence length is split into two paths, namely a measurement light path (3) and a reference light path (4), and is coupled into two optical waveguides (5, 6), the light of the reference light path (4) is at least partially coupled back and the light of the measurement light path (3) is focussed at a measurement point (11) and reflected by the component passing through the focus (11), wherein the light distances in the measurement light path (3) up to the focus (11) and in the reference light path (4) up to the coupling-back plane (12,18) are of the same length within the coherence length of the radiated light, wherein the coupled-back light from the reference light path (4) and the measurement light path (3) is brought to interference and detected by a detector (14), and wherein a short modulation event occurs at the detector (14) when the component (13) passes through the focus (11) (FIG. 1).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.