Simple approach for extending the ambiguity-free range of dual-comb ranging
Jakob Fellinger, Georg Winkler, P. E. Collin Aldia, Aline S. Mayer, Valentina Shumakova, Lukas W. Perner, Vito F. Pecile, Tadeusz Martynkien, Pawel Mergo, Grzegorz Soboń, Oliver H. Heckl
Abstract
Dual-comb (DC) ranging is an established method for high-precision and high-accuracy distance measurements. It is, however, restricted by an inherent length ambiguity and the requirement for complex control loops for comb stabilization. Here, we present a simple approach for expanding the ambiguity-free measurement length of DC ranging by exploiting the intrinsic intensity modulation of a single-cavity dual-color DC for simultaneous time-of-flight and DC distance measurements. This measurement approach enables the measurement of distances up to several hundred kilometers with the precision and accuracy of a DC interferometric setup while providing a high data acquisition rate ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mo>≈</mml:mo> <mml:mspace width="negativethinmathspace"/> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:mspace width="thickmathspace"/> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">k</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">H</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">z</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> ) and requiring only the repetition rate of one of the combs to be stabilized.