System and method for chirped pulse interferometry
OwnerKevin Reschinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The device is based on a cross-correlator which measures the signal between a pair of oppositely chirped laser pulses. Two laser pulses, one with a positive chirp and one with a negative chirp, are mixed on a beamsplitter. The two resulting beams pass through a reference or a sample arm and are subsequently mixed on a non-linear crystal. The signal from the interferometer is the sum frequency generation produced in that crystal. The reference arm contains a moveable delay which is used to change the relative timing of the two beams in the interferometer. The sum frequency generation in the narrow band of frequencies is the signal from the device and is measured as a function of the delay. Alternatively, a pure dispersive phase shift could be used in place of the two laser pulses.
Claims49
An interferometer system for measuring optical properties of a sample, the interferometer system characterised by:
- (a) a light source apparatus operable to emit at least one shaped laser pulse toward a beam splitting apparatus;
- (b) the beam splitting apparatus operable to (i) mix the at least one shaped laser pulses so as to define a mixed beam;
- and (ii) separate the mixed beam so as to define two resulting beams, a first resulting beam directed to a reference arm and a second resulting beam directed to a sample arm, the sample being associated with the sample arm;
- (c) a combining apparatus operable to receive the two resulting beams after the two resulting beams exit the reference arm and the sample arm, the combining apparatus combining, using a means of optical nonlinear mixing, the two resulting beams into a product beam, the combining apparatus further directing the product beam towards a detection point;
- and
- (d) a detector operable to record at the detection point an interference pattern for defining the optical properties, the interference pattern corresponding to the product beam.
An interferometric method for measuring optical properties of a sample, the interferometric method characterised by:
- (a) generating at least one shaped laser pulse;
- (b) mixing the at least one shaped laser pulse so as to define a mixed beam;
- (c) separating the mixed beam so as to define two resulting beams, a first resulting beam directed to a reference path and a second resulting beam directed to a sample path, the sample associated with the sample path;
- and
- (d) combining, by optical nonlinear mixing, the two resulting beams after the two resulting beams exit the reference path and the sample path into a product beam, the product beam corresponding to an interference pattern for defining the optical properties.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.