Adaptive optical phase estimation for real-time sensing of fast-varying signals

Optical phase tracking is an important technique for use in high-precision measurement applications, including optical frequency metrology and ground- or space-based gravitational wave observation, and coherent optical communications. When measuring fast-varying real-time signals, the response time limitations of the measurement system's phase-locked loop cause the best operating point to be mismatched, and the measurement then becomes nonlinear. To make these measurements possible, this work proposes a time delay loop that theoretically enables optimal homodyne detection. When the time delay loop is combined with an extended Kalman filter, the estimated measurement accuracy is improved by 2.4 dB when tracking a fast-varying random signal with a velocity of 10⁷ rad/s. This phase estimation improvement also increases as the interference angle deviates further from the optimal measurement point. The proposed method shows potential for use in real-time sensing and measurement applications.