Laser heterodyne interferometer for simultaneous measuring displacement and angle based on the Faraday effect.

Abstract

A laser heterodyne interferometer for simultaneous measuring displacement and angle based on the Faraday effect is proposed. The optical configuration of the proposed interferometer is designed and the mathematic model for measuring displacement and angle is established. The influences of the translational, lateral and rotational movements of the measuring reflector on displacement and angle measurement are analyzed in detail. The experimental setup based on the proposed interferometer was constructed and a series of experiments of angle comparison and simultaneous measuring displacement and angle were performed to verify the feasibility of the proposed interferometer for precision displacement and angle measurement.