Abstract
We describe fiber-based quadrature low-coherence interferometers that exploit the inherent phase shifts of and higher-order fiber-optic couplers. We present a framework based on conservation of energy to account for the interferometric shifts in interferometers, and we demonstrate that the resulting interferometers provide the entire complex interferometric signal instantaneously in homodyne and heterodyne systems. In heterodyne detection we demonstrate the capability for extraction of the magnitude and sign of Doppler shifts from the complex data. In homodyne detection we show the detection of subwavelength sample motion. () low-coherence interferometer topologies will be useful in Doppler optical coherence tomography (OCT), optical coherence microscopy, Fourier-domain OCT, optical frequency domain reflectometry, and phase-referenced interferometry.
© 2003 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
Marinko V. Sarunic, Michael A. Choma, Changhuei Yang, and Joseph A. Izatt
Opt. Express 13(3) 957-967 (2005)
L. Peng, P. Yu, D. D. Nolte, and M. R. Melloch
Opt. Lett. 28(6) 396-398 (2003)
M. Akiba, K. P. Chan, and N. Tanno
Opt. Lett. 28(10) 816-818 (2003)