Stabilizing double-longitudinal mold laser frequency method and apparatus based on thermoelectric cooling module
Technical field
The invention belongs to the laser application technique field, particularly a kind of stabilizing double-longitudinal mold laser frequency method and apparatus based on thermoelectric cooling module.
Background technology
One of characteristics of laser are that monochromaticjty is good, and the laser linewidth limit that its spontaneous emission noise causes is very little, but because the influence of various destabilizing factors, the laser optical frequency drift that freely turns round is far longer than the live width limit.In applications such as precise interference measurement, optical frequency standard, optical communication and accurate spectral investigation, laser requires light frequency (wavelength) to have good stability as length standard.
According to the difference of actuator, laser frequency stabiliz ation method mainly can be divided into piezoelectric ceramic frequency stabilizing method, electric boiled-off silk frequency stabilizing method, discharging current frequency stabilizing method and air-cooled frequency stabilizing method etc.The piezoelectric ceramic frequency stabilizing method adopts the piezoelectric crystal control chamber long, and it uses the medium frequency uncertainty in the breadboard large-scale ultraprecise diamond lathe laser heterodyne interference measuring system of U.S. Lao Lunsi can be up to 10
-9, but the process structure complexity costs an arm and a leg the big and life cycle weak point of piezoelectric creep.The control of heating wire frequency stabilizing method is wrapped in outside the laser tube or the size of current of the heating wire in the pipe, regulates laser tube temperature resonant cavity chamber length and comes stable laser output light frequency, and hewlette-packard utilizes this method acquisition 10
-8Frequency stability, but this method had both required system to have good radiating condition, prevent the too fast temperature instability of bringing of heat exchange again, thereby its Thermal structures design difficulty, and because the capacitive of thermal tuning lags behind, this method can not be used for locking the frequency stabilization system that feedback signal is extreme value (as a Zeemen effect frequency difference peak value).The discharging current frequency stabilizing method is similar to the heating wire frequency stabilizing method, by regulating the laser tube discharging current, change laser tube temperature resonant cavity chamber length and come stable laser output light frequency, to influence the size of feedback signals such as light intensity, optical frequency difference and the center frequency points position of gain curve but change discharging current, so its frequency stability generally is not higher than 10
-7Air-cooled frequency stabilizing method can initiatively reduce laser tube temperature, and radiating condition is good, but its temperature rise can only cause by the laser tube self-heating, the design symmetry difficulty of thermal control curve, and, influence the frequency stabilization effect because air current flow is brought vibrations easily.
In addition, to reach thermal equilibrium state be one of essential condition of frequency stabilization to laser in the frequency stabilization process, above-mentioned frequency-stabilizing method all adds constant voltage to heating wire and carries out preheating, be fixed value and for avoiding the saturated general setting laser pipe preheating target temperature of heat in the heating wire frequency stabilizing method particularly greater than the laser tube thermal equilibrium temperature that turns round naturally, thereby under different external environments pre-heat effect and differ warm-up time bigger, even warm-up time reach and also be difficult to more than 1 hour reach the frequency stabilization requirement, influenced of the application of these methods in industry spot.
Summary of the invention
In order to overcome the deficiency in the above-mentioned prior art, the present invention proposes a kind of stabilizing double-longitudinal mold laser frequency method based on thermoelectric cooling module.This method adds reverse current to thermoelectric cooling module laser tube is preheated to its heat balance temperature that turns round naturally, size and Orientation by control thermoelectric cooling module electric current changes laser resonant cavity chamber length to control the difference of the two longitudinal mode luminous powers of laser output is zero again, and this moment, two longitudinal mode light frequencies were all stablized.
Above-mentioned purpose realizes by following technical scheme:
Based on the stabilizing double-longitudinal mold laser frequency method of thermoelectric cooling module, this method may further comprise the steps:
(1) the residing ambient temperature T of Laser Measurement device
0, according to ambient temperature T
0Determine the thermal equilibrium temperature T under the double-longitudinal-mode laser laser tube nature open state
Set
(2) open laser power supply, and the Current Temperatures T of real-time Laser Measurement pipe
Real, thermoelectric cooling module is added reverse current I and according to Current Temperatures T
RealWith thermal equilibrium temperature T
SetDifference constantly adjust reverse current I value size, the heating laser tube makes its temperature convergence thermal equilibrium temperature T
SetDistinguish the luminous power P of orthogonal m rank, Laser Measurement device polarization direction and m+1 rank longitudinal mode simultaneously
mAnd P
M+1, and obtain the difference Δ P of two power;
(3) laser tube temperature reaches thermal equilibrium temperature T
SetThe positive and negative of difference Δ P according to two power applies forward and reverse electric current to thermoelectric cooling module, control it to laser tube refrigeration, heating, change temperature, cavity length and the laser longitudinal module frequency of laser tube, make two longitudinal mode laser frequencies about gain curve centre frequency symmetry, optical power difference Δ P levels off to zero;
(4) during optical power difference Δ P=0, then thermoelectric cooling module electric current I=0, two longitudinal mode light frequency is stable is symmetrically distributed in gain curve centre frequency both sides, and two longitudinal mode light frequencies are all stablized.
Stabilizing double-longitudinal mold laser frequency device based on thermoelectric cooling module, its composition comprises: high voltage source, temperature sensor, radiator, polarizing beam splitter, photodetector, preamplifier, post amplifier, low pass filter, A/D converter, microprocessor, D/A converter, filter inductance, the present invention comprises that also realizing between He-Ne laser tube and the operational environment with the radiator is the heat exchange of media, with the thermoelectric cooling module and the controller thereof of realization preheating and two control procedures of frequency stabilization, and the thermal insulation layer that reduces heat exchange between described He-Ne laser tube and the operational environment.
Advantage of the present invention is:
First Laser Measurement device ambient temperature before the laser start, determine the preheating target temperature value according to ambient temperature, and be reference signal with the preheating target temperature, laser tube 1 temperature is a feedback signal, both differences are deviation signal, thermoelectric cooling module 6 is an executive component, and laser tube 1 is a controlling object, is configured for the temperature closed loop control system of laser tube preheating.The preheating target temperature changes with original ambient temperature to be regulated, and preheat curent is along with the variation of deviation signal constantly changes rather than the maintenance constant in warm, help reducing the influence of ambient temperature, reach the preheating purpose fast and effectively, this is one of innovative point of difference prior art;
In conjunction with polarizing beam splitter 12, photodetector 13,14 is gathered two longitudinal mode luminous powers respectively, after laser tube 1 reaches heat balance, with the null value is input, the difference of two power is the feedback signal of voltage form, and thermoelectric cooling module 6 is the executive component of practicable heating, refrigeration, and the resonant cavity chamber is long to be controlling object, constitute the laser power difference control system of zero definite value, indirectly stable laser output optical frequency.The present invention utilizes the heating of thermoelectric cooling module, refrigerating effect to reduce, it is long to increase the chamber, by bi-directional tracking characteristic stable laser output light frequency expeditiously, this be the difference prior art innovative point two;
Adopt the frequency regulator of thermoelectric cooling module 6 frequency stabilizations to have unique heat exchange structure, utilize thermal insulation layer 9 to reduce laser tube 1 and extraneous free heat exchange greatly, be heat exchange medium with aluminium heat-conducting layer 4 simultaneously, realize controlled laser tube 1 and heat exchange with outside with thermoelectric cooling module 6, make by the frequency stabilization link and be in the metastable thermal environment, help improving the antijamming capability of frequency stabilization, this be the difference prior art innovative point three;
After adopting above-mentioned technology, frequency regulator has following distinguishing feature:
1) under the different situation of ambient temperature, the consistency of warm-up time and pre-heat effect is relatively good, the frequency regulator that uses pre-heating mean of the present invention is applicable to more commercial Application scene, avoided existing frequency regulator along with shortcomings such as ambient temperature extend the different warm-up times that occur, and pre-heat effect is undesirable;
2) refrigeration of thermoelectric cooling module and heating dual-use function, the temperature and the frequency that can guarantee laser are under two-way (raise, reduce) complete slave mode, have avoided former thermal frequency-stabilizing device because of designing not enough unidirectional drift of optical frequency even the mode hopping problem that further causes of the not enough hot saturated thermal power that occurs.
3) heat insulation device greatly reduces laser tube and realizes controlled laser tube and heat exchange with outside with extraneous free heat exchange, thermoelectric cooling module, and this mechanism has avoided the optical frequency stability of former frequency regulator to be subject to the shortcoming of ambient temperature, air velocity variable effect.
Description of drawings
Fig. 1 is the principle schematic of apparatus of the present invention
The structural representation that Fig. 2 installs for apparatus of the present invention thermoelectric cooling module
Fig. 3 is the structural representation of apparatus of the present invention
Fig. 4 is a temperature closed loop control system schematic diagram in the warm of the present invention
Fig. 5 is a difference power closed-loop control system schematic diagram in the frequency stabilization process of the present invention
Fig. 6 is the correlation schematic diagram of the thermoelectric cooling module sense of current among the present invention and heat exchange direction
Fig. 7 is the preheat temperature data and curves of the embodiment of the invention under different initial environment
The used He-Ne laser tube 1 of Fig. 8 embodiment is two longitudinal mode optical power change data and curves in warm
Among the figure, 1He-Ne laser tube, 2 high voltage sourcies, 3 and 5 and 7 silica gel heat-conducting layers, 4 aluminium heat-conducting layers, 5 thermoelectric cooling modules, 8 radiators, 9 thermal insulation layers, 10 temperature sensors, 11 environment temperature sensors, 12 polarizing beam splitters, 13 and 14 photodetectors, 15 and 16 preamplifiers, 17 and 18 post amplifiers, 19 and 20 low pass filters, 21 and 22A/D transducer, 23 microprocessors, 24D/A transducer, 25 thermoelectric cooling controllers, 26 and 27 filter inductances, 28 preheat mode lamps, 29 frequency stabilization status lamps
The specific embodiment of the present invention:
Embodiment 1:
Technical solution of the present invention is: a kind of stabilizing double-longitudinal mold laser frequency method based on thermoelectric cooling module, this method may further comprise the steps
(1) the residing ambient temperature T of Laser Measurement device
0, according to ambient temperature T
0Determine the thermal equilibrium temperature T of double-longitudinal-mode laser laser tube after starting shooting naturally under this ambient temperature
Set
(2) open laser high voltage source 1, and the Current Temperatures T of real-time Laser Measurement pipe
Real, thermoelectric cooling module is added reverse current I and according to Current Temperatures T
RealWith thermal equilibrium temperature T
SetDifference constantly adjust reverse current I value size, heating laser tube 1 makes its temperature convergence thermal equilibrium temperature T
SetDistinguish the luminous power P of orthogonal m rank, Laser Measurement device polarization direction and m+1 rank longitudinal mode simultaneously
mAnd P
M+1, and obtain the difference Δ P of two power.
(3) laser tube 1 temperature reaches thermal equilibrium temperature T
SetThe positive and negative of difference Δ P according to two power applies forward and reverse electric current to thermoelectric cooling module 6, control it to laser tube 1 refrigeration, heating, change temperature, cavity length and the laser longitudinal module frequency of laser tube 1, make two longitudinal mode laser frequencies about gain curve centre frequency symmetry, optical power difference Δ P levels off to zero.
(4) during optical power difference Δ P=0, then thermoelectric cooling module 6 electric current I=0, two longitudinal mode light frequency is stable is symmetrically distributed in gain curve centre frequency both sides, and two longitudinal mode light frequencies are all stablized.
A kind of stabilizing double-longitudinal mold laser frequency device based on thermoelectric cooling module is mainly by He-Ne laser tube 1, high voltage source 2, silica gel heat-conducting layer 3 and 5 and 7, aluminium heat-conducting layer 4, thermoelectric cooling module 6, radiator 8, thermal insulation layer 9, temperature sensor 10, environment temperature sensor 11, polarizing beam splitter 12, photodetector 13 and 14, preamplifier 15 and 16, post amplifier 17 and 18, low pass filter 19 and 20, A/ D converter 21 and 22, microprocessor 23, D/A converter 24, thermoelectric cooling controller 25, filter inductance 26 and 27, preheat mode lamp 28, frequency stabilization status lamp 29 constitutes.It is the heat exchange of media that whole device utilizes thermoelectric cooling module 6 to realize between He-Ne laser tubes 1 and the operational environment with radiator 8, realizes preheating and two control procedures of frequency stabilization.
The structure of the stabilizing double-longitudinal mold laser frequency device based on thermoelectric cooling module of the present invention and operation principle reach accompanying drawing in conjunction with the embodiments and are described in detail as follows:
Stabilizing double-longitudinal mold laser frequency device one embodiment based on thermoelectric cooling module of the present invention, structure comprises as shown in Figure 3: He-Ne laser tube 1, high voltage source 2, silica gel heat-conducting layer 3 and 5 and 7, aluminium heat-conducting layer 4, thermoelectric cooling module 6, radiator 8, thermal insulation layer 9, temperature sensor 10, environment temperature sensor 11, polarizing beam splitter 12, photodetector 13 and 14, preamplifier 15 and 16, post amplifier 17 and 18, low pass filter 19 and 20, A/ D converter 21 and 22, microprocessor 23, D/A converter 24, thermoelectric cooling controller 25, filter inductance 26 and 27, preheat mode lamp 28, frequency stabilization status lamp 29.
When embodiment device was started working, microprocessor 23 (ATML89C52) drove preheat mode lamp 28 (LED), and display unit enters preheat mode; Microprocessor 23 is set thermal equilibrium temperature according to the ambient temperature that environment temperature sensor 11 (DS18B20) records, and opens high voltage source 2 and lights He-Ne laser tube 1; In pre-thermal control, microprocessor 23 is an input signal with the thermal equilibrium temperature, the laser tube temperature that temperature sensor 10 (HTS206) records is output signal and feedback signal, this is applicable to the control algolithm of delay system according to MPC, the output digital signal obtains aanalogvoltage by D/A converter 24 (AD420) digital-to-analogue conversion, this aanalogvoltage is delivered to power amplification thermoelectric cooling controller 25 (MAX1968) obtain the PWM pulse-width signal, with the reverse current I size of control, to heat-conducting layer 3 by thermoelectric cooling module 6 (magnificent TEC1-3503T125 is built in Hangzhou), 4,5 and He-Ne laser tube 1 heating; The high-frequency ac current that is serially connected in high-power inductance 26, the 27 filtering pwm signals in the current circuit is controlled effect preferably with acquisition.
After reaching thermal equilibrium temperature, microprocessor 23 turn-offs preheat mode lamp 28 (LED), drive frequency stabilization status lamp 29 (LED), microprocessor 23 switches whole device and begins frequency stabilization control: two longitudinal mode light that He-Ne laser tube 1 sends are polarized optical splitter 12 (PBS) beam split and are respectively photodetector (PN) 13,14 according to its polarization characteristic and convert two current signals of representing watt level to; This two current signal is through preamplifier (TLC2652) 15 and 16, and post amplifier (OP07) 17 and 18 is gathered to digital quantity input microprocessor 23 by A/D converter (AD976) 21 and 22 again, obtains the poor of two longitudinal mode luminous powers; With the null value is input variable, optical power difference is as feedback signal, this is applicable to the control algolithm of delay system to microprocessor 23 according to MPC, the output digital signal obtains aanalogvoltage by D/A converter 24 digital-to-analogue conversions, this aanalogvoltage is delivered to thermoelectric cooling controller 25 obtain the PWM pulse-width signal with the size of current and the direction of control by thermoelectric cooling module 6, to heat-conducting layer 3,4,5 and He-Ne laser tube 1 heating or refrigeration, change the temperature of laser tube, cavity length and laser longitudinal module frequency, make two longitudinal mode laser frequencies about gain curve centre frequency symmetry, optical power difference levels off to zero.In the time of near optical power difference is stable at null value, microprocessor 23 turn-offs frequency stabilization status lamps 29 (LED), shows that frequency stabilization work finishes.
Fig. 2 has provided He-Ne laser tube 1 scheme of installation in apparatus of the present invention.The He-Ne laser tube is generally circle at present, and that thermoelectric cooling module is generally is plate shaped, for realizing heat exchange between the two, the present invention has designed shape aluminium heat-conducting layer 4 as shown in the figure, and silica gel heat-conducting layer 3,5,7 mainly is to be heat-conducting filler, improve between He-Ne laser tube 1 and the aluminium heat-conducting layer 4, between aluminium heat-conducting layer 4 and the thermoelectric cooling module 6, the heat-conductive characteristic between thermoelectric cooling module 6 and the radiator 8.
Fig. 6 has illustrated thermoelectric cooling module 6 senses of current and heat energy direction correlation among the embodiment.
Thermoelectric cooling module 6 is to use the relevant thermoelectric effect with other of the significant peltier effect of semi-conducting material and the semiconductor subassembly that manufactures and designs among the embodiment, according to there being volume little, life-span is long, noiseless vibration and do not have advantage such as any pollution, principle is: when a N type semiconductor material and P type semiconductor material be unified into galvanic couple to the time, in this circuit, connect direct current after, the transfer of energy just can take place: electric current flows to P type element by N type element, joint absorbs heat, becomes cold junction; Electric current flows to N type element, joint release heat by P type element.Become the hot junction.The heat energy direction is determined by sense of current, absorbs heat and exothermic size and is determined by size of current.
When the positive electricity end input current of thermoelectric cooling module among the embodiment 6, heat energy is from 1 output of He-Ne laser tube, successively through silicon heat-conducting layer 3, aluminium heat-conducting layer 4, silica gel heat-conducting layer 5, thermoelectric cooling module 6, silica gel heat-conducting layer 7, arrive radiator 8, radiator 8 has than large tracts of land, so heat is easy to loose in air by the form of cross-ventilation and radiation; When the extreme input current of negative electricity of thermoelectric cooling module among the embodiment 6, radiator 8 absorbs heat energy by the form of cross-ventilation and radiation from air, successively through silica gel heat-conducting layer 7, thermoelectric cooling module 6, silica gel heat-conducting layer 5, aluminium heat-conducting layer 4, silica gel heat-conducting layer 3 arrives He-Ne laser tube 1.
Fig. 7 has provided the preheat temperature data and curves of apparatus of the present invention embodiment under different initial environment, can draw under different initial temperature environment from plots changes, laser warm-up curve variation tendency basically identical, rise within 0.1 ℃ of the target temperature in temperature about 15 minutes, and rate of temperature change is very little, reaches heat balance substantially.Device is described in different industry spot, the preheating of elapsed time basically identical can both obtain heat balance, and frequency stabilization condition preferably is provided.
Fig. 8 has provided 1 pair of longitudinal mode optical power change of He-Ne laser tube data that apparatus of the present invention embodiment adopted.
It is the 633nm coaxial-type inner chamber He-Ne laser tube of 150mm that embodiment adopts cavity length l, and according to resonant cavity modeling theory, its intermode is apart from relevant with light velocity c resonant cavity length:
And the gain width is 1.2~1.5GHz, therefore in major part moment that laser turn round naturally, laser can keep two longitudinal modes to vibrate simultaneously, again because two longitudinal modes that concern of mode competition are orthogonal polarised light, and the advantage oscillation mode polarization direction that power is bigger always appears on the less fixed radial of the loss of laser-tube cavity, and along with the polarization direction of variation two moulds that gain exchanges suddenly, the mode hopping phenomenon appears.But this " mode hopping " phenomenon is along with various laser gas compositions, the loss of resonator and birefringent characteristic different and different, if the mode hopping phenomenon occurs at the power identical points, then this point can not be stablized control.As can be seen from Fig. 3, " mode hopping " of the laser tube that present embodiment adopts do not appear at the moment that two longitudinal mode power equate, so laser tube can equate the state that frequency relative gain center of curve frequency is symmetrically distributed by control stabilization at two longitudinal mode power.
Below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings the specific embodiment of the present invention is described; but according to law stipulates that these explanations can not limit the scope of the present invention; protection scope of the present invention is limited by the claims of enclosing, and any change that carry out on claim of the present invention basis, that these those skilled in the art can make according to existing knowledge all is protection scope of the present invention.