Can I Use the Optical Pickup from a CD/DVD Player or CD/DVDROM for Interferometry?
With the nice precision optics, electromechanical actuators, laser diode, and photodiode array present in the mass produced pickup of a CD/DVD player, CD/DVDROM drive, or other optical disc/k drive, one would think that alternative uses could be found for this assembly after it has served for many years performing its intended functions – or perhaps, much earlier, depending on your relative priorities. 🙂 (Also see the section: Using a CD or DVD Optical Pickup in a Precision Position or Angle Encoder. People sometimes ask about using the focused laser beam for for scanning or interferometry. This requires among other things convincing the logic in the CD/DVD player or CD/DVDROM drive to turn the laser on and leave it on despite the possible inability to focus, track, or read data. The alternative is to remove the optical pickup entirely and drive it externally. If you keep the pickup installed in the CD player (or other equipment), what you want to do isn’t going to be easy since the
