We propose a frequency-scanning interferometry using the Kalman filtering technique for dynamic absolute distance measurement. Frequency-scanning interferometry only uses a single tunable laser driven by a triangle waveform signal for forward and backward optical frequency scanning. The absolute distance and moving speed of a target can be estimated by the present input measurement of frequency-scanning interferometry and the previously calculated state based on the Kalman filter algorithm. This method not only compensates for movement errors in conventional frequency-scanning interferometry, but also achieves high-precision and low-complexity dynamic measurements. Experimental results of dynamic measurements under static state, vibration and one-dimensional movement are presented.

Frequency scanning interferometry (FSI) with a single external cavity diode laser (ECDL) and time-invariant Kalman filtering is an effective technique for measuring the distance of a dynamic target. However, due to the hysteresis of the piezoelectric ceramic transducer (PZT) actuator in the ECDL, the optical frequency sweeps of the ECDL exhibit different behaviors, depending on whether the frequency is increasing or decreasing. Consequently, the model parameters of Kalman filter appear time varying in each iteration, which produces state estimation errors with time-invariant filtering. To address this, in this paper, a time-varying Kalman filter is proposed to model the instantaneous movement of a target relative to the different optical frequency tuning durations of the ECDL. The combination of the FSI method with the time-varying Kalman filter was theoretically analyzed, and the simulation and experimental results show the proposed method greatly improves the performance of dynamic FSI measurements.

We present an effective method to extend the mode-hop-free (MHF) tuning range of an external-cavity diode laser (ECDL) by synchronous tuning of the longitudinal modes of the external cavity and the internal cavity, with the mode also matched in the initial state. Both the principle of synchronous tuning and the condition of mode matching in a Littman-configuration ECDL are introduced. The necessary tuning parameters could simply be estimated by the output power curve of the tuning with a single photodiode. By using this tuning method, we increased the MHF tuning range of an ECDL with a nonoptimized reflector pivot position from several gigahertzes to over 78 GHz around 774.5 nm. The tuning performance of the ECDL could meet the requirement of frequency scanned interferometry.