Wide dynamic range homodyne interferometry method and its application for piezoactuator displacement measurements

Multiactuated piezoelectric flextensional actuators (MAPFAs) is a fast-growing technology in development, with a wide range of applications in precision mechanics and nanotechnology. In turn, optical interferometry is an adequate technique to measure nano/micro-displacements and to characterize these MAPFAs. In this work, an efficient method for homodyne phase detection, based on a well-known Bessel functions recurrence relation, is developed, providing practical applications with a high dynamic range. Fading and electronic noise are taken into account in the analysis. An important advantage of the method is that, for each measurement, only a limited number of frequencies in the magnitude spectrum of the photodetected signal are used, without the need to know the phase spectrum. The dynamic range for phase demodulation is from 0.2 to 100π rad (or 10 nm to 16 μm for displacement, using 632.8 nm wavelength). The upper range can be easily expanded by adapting the electronic system to the signal characteristics. By using this interferometric technique, a new XY nanopositioner MAPFA prototype is tested in terms of linearity, displacement frequency response, and coupling rate.