Absolute distance measurement with an unraveled femtosecond frequency comb

Abstract

Abstract-We demonstrate the measurement of an arbitrary absolute distance with a mode-resolved frequency comb laser. By resolving the frequency comb modes individually with a virtually imaged phase array (VIPA), thousands of lasers modes are available that can be exploited for massively parallel homodyne interferometry. With this method a non-ambiguity range of 15 cm is obtained, allowing for non-incremental distance measurement in an interferometric scheme.