Fully referenced single-comb interferometry using optical sampling by laser-cavity tuning

The correction of setup and laser instabilities in a single-comb interferometric measurement using optical sampling by laser-cavity tuning is investigated. A two-reference solution that allows full correction of the interferogram is presented. The technique is compared to a slightly simpler one-reference correction. For the one-reference case, all the subtleties involved in this partial correction and the dependence between the achievable measurement accuracy and the setup parameters are highlighted. The parameters considered are the comb bandwidth, the laser-frequency noise, the required spectral resolution, the cavity scan speed, and the length of the delay line. For both referencing approaches, experimental results using a fiber delay line of 10 km and a 100 MHz mode-locked laser with its repetition rate swept at 500 Hz are shown. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America