Vol. 53, Issue 4, pp. 539-545

Abstract

A wavemeter using the near-field Talbot diffraction is simplified. High accuracy wavelength measurement can be obtained from each spacing between two adjacent maximum intensities of the periodicity along multiples of the Talbot distance. Our experimental results are confirmed by our calculations. In contrast to the previous works, we use a diffraction grating with sufficiently large grating period. Therefore, the setup is practical and the pixel size of camera used to measure the interference pattern can be large. Moreover, the obtained Talbot patterns are sharp without using a post-image processing. According to our recent setup, we use the grating with a period of 12.5 μm. With visible light lasers, the Talbot distances are in the range of a few hundred of micrometers. These distances are much larger than a pixel size of normal camera. An external cavity diode laser with rubidium saturated absorption spectroscopy is used to calibrate our setup. High accuracy at 1 pm can be achieved.