Fringe Disappearance in Self-Mixing Interferometry Laser Sensors: Model and Application to the Absolute Distance Measurement Scheme

The fringes disappearance phenomenon in the self-mixing interferometry occurs whenever the external round-trip phase at free-running state is modulated by either external modulation such as external cavity length changes or internal modulation when the laser injection current is modulated with a high back-scattered light power. This phenomenon has been observed by many authors for harmonic motion or vibration application, and more recently in the case of the absolute distance measurement scheme when the laser injection current is modulated in the triangle waveform. However, there are no clear explanations on the fringes disappearance phenomenon and its dependence on the self-mixing's regimes. In this paper, a novel approach that depicts the mechanism of interferometric fringes disappearance is proposed that highlight with a new perspective the impact of the coupling strength between the laser and the external cavity on the number of missing fringes. The proposed modelling is validated by a set of measurements using the optical feedback interferometry absolute distance measurement scheme.