Pulse-to-pulse alignment based on interference fringes and the second-order temporal coherence function of optical frequency combs for distance measurement

Abstract

A pulse-to-pulse alignment method based on interference fringes and the second-order temporal coherence function of optical frequency combs is proposed for absolute distance measurement. The second-order temporal coherence function of the pulse train emitted from optical frequency combs is studied. A numerical model of the function is developed with an assumption of Gaussian pulse and has good agreement with experimental measurements taken by an ordinary Michelson interferometer. The experimental results show an improvement of standard deviation of peak finding results from 27.3 nm to 8.5 nm by the method in ordinary laboratory conditions. The absolute distance measurement with the pulse-to-pulse alignment method is also proposed and experimentally proved.