Transmittance and phase measurement via self-calibrated balanced heterodyne detection

Abstract

It is rare for a conventional direct detection method to measure the transmittance uniformity of mirrors with rigorous standards, especially to meet the requirement of transmittance/reflectance and phase detection simultaneously. In this study, a new method of self-calibrated balanced heterodyne detection (SCBHD) is proposed. It can be self-calibrated by a two-channel structure to overcome the environmental effects in large optics scanning detection by employing highly accurate heterodyne interference. A typical transmittance measurement experiment was performed at 1053 nm wavelength via SCBHD. A standard deviation (SD) of 0.038% was achieved in the preliminary experiment. The experimental results prove to reduce the SD by approximately two orders of magnitude compared with the conventional direct detection method in the same condition. The proposed method was verified as being promising not only for its wider dynamic measurement range and its higher accuracy but also for its simultaneous transmittance and phase detection ability.