• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.71-74
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• 2008

In this paper, we have measured the effect of the optical spot size, incident upon the quadrant photodetector, on the optical displacement sensitivity of the optical beam deflection technique. We have built an optical displacement detection system based on the optical beam deflection method using 3 mW He-Ne laser and measured the displacement sensitivity with changing the optical spot size on the quadrant photodetector. We have also calculated the changes in the optical displacement sensitivity as a function of the incident laser spot size by modeling a circular optical spot with constant laser intensity. Our experimental and theoretical studies show that the optical displacement sensitivity increases with the decrease in the optical spot size. This suggests that in the design of the optical motion detection systems with sub-nanometer sensitivity, the displacement sensitivity can be optimized by reducing the size of the incident optical spot on the detector.