Grant: Idea to Innovation

Fiber optic interferometry can be broadly explained as the techniques that utilize the fundamental principles of optical interference to measure physical sample properties or detect changes via sensing systems that are partially or completely realized using fiber optic components. In the current proposal we will build, investigate and improve a prototype for active stabilization at an arbitrary phase in the fibre-optic interferometer platform. Among the years, various stabilization systems have been developed to improve the measurement accuracy of interferometric-based systems, perturbed by thermal, acoustic and mechanical fluctuations. Nevertheless, several issues still need to be addressed, such as: (i) the intrinsic phase ambiguity due to the periodicity of the interferometric feedback signal and (ii) the stabilization instability at the feedback signal extrema. These issues limit the range of stabilizable phases, and make interferometry incompatible with applications requiring locking on an arbitrary phase. Our prototype will address the above-mentioned issues, for a cheap and simple implementation in fiber-optic interferometer platforms. Our efforts will be distributed as follow: (i) Software and interface development for real-time control and readout, (ii) Packaging of the interferometer stabilization system, (iii) Characterization of the system for interferometric measurements, (iv) Complete test of the system for commercial applications. Such a strategy will be developed to meet the standards of the photonic industry and to propose versatile equipment adapted to a large number of applications, including but not limited to Fiber Bragg Grating optical sensing , the demonstration of photon-entanglement generation, and Optical Coherent Tomography. Our method has already raised significant interest in companies that manufacture laser systems at telecom wavelengths, as well as resellers of photonic systems for applications in the field of quantum optics. We intend to push forward the development of our invention with the aim to increase the value of our intellectual property and to enlarge the number of potential customers who might be interested in our technology.