Preliminary Experiments on LAMDA Effect Microscopy

在1989年夏天使用激光干涉测量法研究听觉转导和运动的一系列实验中，pi观察到少量的光被移动的物体反向反射到氦氖气体激光腔中，产生了一个大的和可预测的激光输出强度。与许多其他激光实验家一样，pi们起初认为这种观察是一种需要避免的混沌干扰效应；进一步的研究表明，这种效应可以提供一个非常有价值的替代复杂的，高精度的迈克尔逊或马赫曾德尔或其他类型的干涉测量。这种新方法只使用廉价的气体激光器和靶，对于测量从微米到皮米的运动和位移特别有用。这种效应被命名为LAMDA（激光放大运动检测和分析），对于小于8个激光波长的目标位置变化是线性的，并且对于小到~ 10皮米的运动很容易观察到。LAMDA只需要少量（106 - 0.1%）的背反射光；这很容易从漫射散射表面或从介电边界折射率的微小变化中得到。虽然在PI实验室用He-Ne激光器观察到，但该效应应该存在于所有连续波激光器，包括二极管激光器。能够用最简单的实验安排，廉价的激光和待测量表面来测量运动和位移到皮米尺度，打开了一个全新的运动和振动分析，成像，光学计量和光学数据存储的可能性。1 .预期LAMDA一旦得到充分理解和应用，将对科学研究和技术的许多领域产生影响。在过去的几个月里，我们已经开始详细描述这种机制，并为这种LAMDA效应提供了坚实的理论基础。到目前为止，我们发现LAMDA最有趣的应用之一是有可能使用LAMDA的高z分辨率（皮米）作为光学显微镜的基础，光学显微镜有能力分辨比普通弗劳恩霍夫衍射限制显微镜物镜（~200- 400nm）更精细的细节。利用LAMDA效应设计扫描共聚焦显微镜，我们希望在10nm分辨率下观察生物样品的特征。

In a series of experiments during the summer of 1989 using laser interferometry to study auditory transduction and motion, the PIs observed that a small amount of light back-reflected into a He-Ne gas laser cavity by a moving object produced a large and predictable of the laser's output intensity. In company with many other laser experimentalist, the PIs at first deemed this observation as a chaotic nuisance effect to be avoided; further investigation showed that this effect can provide an extremely valuable alternative to complex, high-precision Michelson or MachZehnder or other types of interferometry. This new method, using only an inexpensive gas laser and the target, is particularly useful for the measurement of motions and displacements from microns down to picometers. The effect, named LAMDA (Laser Amplified Motion Detection and Analysis), is linear for changes in target position of less than 8 of the laser light wavelength and has been observed easily for motion as small as ~ 10 picometers. LAMDA requires only a small amount (106 - 0.1%) of back reflected light; this is easily obtained with diffuse scattering surfaces or from small changes of refractive index at dielectric boundaries. Although observed in the PI's laboratory with He-Ne lasers, the effect should be present for all continuous wave lasers including diode lasers. Being able to measure motion and displacement down to the picometer scale with the simplest of experimental arrangements, an inexpensive laser and the surface to be measured, opens a whole new range of motion and vibration analysis, imaging, optical metrology, and optical data-storage possibilities. 1 It is anticipated that LAMDA, when thoroughly understood and applied, will have an effect on many fields of scientific research and technology. For the past several months we have begun to characterize in detail the mechanism and provide a firm theoretical basis for this LAMDA effect. 2 To date, one of the most interesting applications of LAMDA that we have found so far is the possibility of using LAMDA's high z-resolution (picometers) as the basis for a light microscope having the ability to resolve finer detail than possible with normal Frauenhofer-diffraction limited microscope objectives (~200- 400nm). By utilizing the LAMDA effect in a scanning confocal microscope design, we hope to observe features of biological samples to a resolution of 10nm.