High-speed phase- and group-delay scanning with a grating-based phase control delay line

A rapid-scanning optical delay line that employs phase control has several advantages, including high speed, high duty cycle, phase-and group-delay independence, and group-velocity dispersion compensation, over existing optical delay methods for interferometric optical ranging applications. We discuss the grating-based phase-control delay line and its applications to interferometric optical ranging and measurement techniques such as optical coherence domain reflectometry and optical coherence tomography. The system performs optical ranging over an axial range of 3 mm with a scanning rate of 6 m/s and a repetition rate of 2 kHz. The device is especially well suited for applications such as optical coherence tomography that require high-speed, repetitive, linear delay line scanning with a high duty cycle. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.