Self-correction of air refractive index in distance measurement using two-color sinusoidal phase modulating interferometry

A two-color sinusoidal phase modulating (SPM) interferometer based on electro-optic modulator (EOM) is devised for self-correction of air refractive index in distance measurement. Two laser sources with high frequency stability and close wavelengths (633 nm and 782 nm) are used in this scheme. High-accuracy phase demodulation was realized using phase generated carrier (PGC) demodulation techniques with an FPGA-based signal processing board. Experimental results of nanometer displacement measurements show that the resolution and accuracy of PGC demodulation is better than 1°, and the nonlinear error is less than 0.2°. Performance tests of two-color SPM interferometer compared with one-color interferometers under dynamic environment were implemented with an arm length difference of 4 m. The results show that, the measured distance of one-color interferometer drifts 4.8 μm in 600 s, which is caused by the deviation between the measured value of air refractive index and the actual value along the laser propagation path, and this drift reduces to ±1.5 μm using two-color interferometer without environmental sensing. •A novel scheme of two-color interferometer for self-correction of air refractive index in distance measurement is proposed.•High-precision phase demodulation with low nonlinear error is achieved.•The proposed interferometer is suitable to practical distance measurement applications without environmental sensing.