Error Analysis of Heterodyne Interferometry Based on One Single-Mode Polarization-Maintaining Fiber

Using polarization-maintaining fiber (PMF) in dual-frequency heterodyne interferometry has the advantages of reducing the laser’s own drift, obtaining high-quality light spots, and improving thermal stability. Using only one single-mode PMF to achieve the transmission of dual-frequency orthogonal, linearly polarized beam requires angular alignment only once to realize the transmission of dual-frequency orthogonal, linearly polarized light, avoiding coupling inconsistency errors, so that it has the advantages of high efficiency and low cost. However, there are still many nonlinear influencing factors in this method, such as the ellipticity and non-orthogonality of the dual-frequency laser, the angular misalignment error of the PMF, and the influence of temperature on the output beam of the PMF. This paper uses the Jones matrix to innovatively construct an error analysis model for the heterodyne interferometry using one single-mode PMF, to realize the quantitative analysis of various nonlinear error influencing factors, and clarify that the main error source is the angular misalignment error of the PMF. For the first time, the simulation provides a goal for the optimization of the alignment scheme of the PMF and the improvement of the accuracy to the sub-nanometer level. In actual measurement, the angular misalignment error of the PMF needs to be smaller than 2.87° to achieve sub-nanometer interference accuracy, and smaller than 0.25° to make the influence smaller than ten picometers. It provides theoretical guidance and an effective means for improving the design of heterodyne interferometry instruments based on PMF and further reducing measurement errors.