Rapid and precise distance measurement with hybrid comb lasers

Dual-comb ranging allows rapid and precise distance measurement and can be universally implemented on different comb platforms, e.g., fiber combs and microcombs. To date, dual-fiber-comb ranging has become a mature and powerful tool for metrology and industry, but the measurement speed is often at a kilohertz level due to the lower repetition rates. Recently, dual-microcomb ranging has given rise to a new opportunity for distance measurement, in consequence of its small footprint and high repetition rates, but full-comb stabilization is challenging. Here, we report a dual-hybrid-comb distance meter capable of ultrarapid and submicrometer precision distance measurement, which can not only leverage the advantage of easy locking inherited from the fiber comb but also sustain ultrarapid measurement speed due to the microcomb. The experimental results show that the measurement precision can reach 3.572 μm at 4.136 μs and 432 nm at 827.2 μs averaging time. Benefiting from the large difference between the repetition rates of the hybrid combs, the measurement speed can be enhanced by 196 folds, in contrast to the dual-fiber-comb system with about a 250 MHz repetition rate. Our work can offer a solution for the fields of rapid dimensional measurement and spectroscopy.