https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2014-14203-3
Regular Article
Computer-controlled high-precision Michelson wavemeter
Centre de Saint Jérôme, Case C21, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, PIIM, UMR 7345, 13397, Marseille Cedex 20, France
* e-mail: jofre.pedregosa@univ-amu.fr
Received:
12
March
2014
Revised:
17
July
2014
Accepted:
20
August
2014
Published online:
30
September
2014
The Michelson wavemeter is a popular instrument in many experiments where the high-precision measurement of a cw laser wavelength is required. In this paper, we describe a simple and inexpensive way to obtain high-precision measurements with this classical physicist’s tool. We exploit the time stamp provided by the high-frequency clock present in modern data acquisition cards to measure the fractional uncertainty of the interference signal. The resulting relative uncertainty value for our current set-up is of the order of 10−8 and can be potentially improved by a factor of 100.
© Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2014
