The project describes a research program for wavelength stabilization of a laser diode for use in a distance measuring interferometer or related device. The long range benefits of this program are a low cost linear distance measuring interferometer, for use in precision machine tools, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, precision metrology, and laboratory measurements. A stabilization technique based upon temperature control of the laser diode is being devised. The temperature is controlled either by an attached thermoelectric (TE) cooler, varying the injection current to the laser diode, or both. This approach requires an external interferometer to develop a control signal based upon wavelength drift if more than crude wavelength stability is obtained.The potential commercial application as described by the awardee: Applications of a low cost, high-accuracy, stabilized laser diode-based distance measuring interferometer. include machine tool control and calibration, process control, IC wafer processing, coordinate measuring machine readout, micropositioning, vibration sensing, and disk drive calibration.
