Measurement of absolute distance employing a tunable CW dye laser

With a tunable CW dye laser oscillating in a single longitudinal mode, measurement of an absolute distance is demonstrated with the method of excess fractions. Five beams which have different wavelengths are emitted sequentially from the dye laser, and the interferometric phae is measured for each wavelength. An interferometric order number for a wavelength can be calculated from values of wavelengths and phases. Then a precise value of length is obtained. This method is similar to measuring distances by using group delay as used in VLBI and microwave ranging. The measured accuracy was within ±8.8 nm between 0 and 10 mm (at an absolute distance of 0.1-10.1 mm). This accuracy on the order of nanometers over a range of several millimeters is regarded as the best yet reported.