Sinusoidal phase-modulating laser diode interferometer using a self-pumped phase-conjugate mirror

A sinusoidal phase-modulating laser diode interferometer using a self-pumped phase-conjugate mirror is proposed. Since the laser diode has some attractive features in size, power waste, and wavelength tunability compared with the ordinary gas lasers, it is suitable for the light source of the interferometers. But to our knowledge, the interferometer which is constructed with a self-pumped phase-conjugate mirror and a laser diode is not well examined, although various applications of self-pumped phase-conjugate mirror has been proposed. Especially, the phase-conjugate wave goes back into the light source, it is important to examine the influences of the feedback effect for laser diode. We have examined the characteristics of the phase- conjugate interferometer and carried out the wave-front measurements using a sinusoidal phase-modulating interferometry.