dc and ac optical nulling bridges for sensitive transmittance measurements

We present a formal comparison between dc and ac nulling optical bridges. We consider their performance in monitoring over long periods of time (several minutes), small and slow (in a time scale of seconds) changes in transmittance of an optical component. We consider two fundamentally different ac optical bridges (OB), an amplitude modulated optical bridge (AM-OB), and a switching optical bridge (Sw-OB). For each OB, we derive a general expression for the minimum detectable change in transmittance (|ΔT|min), taking into account all the important noises. It is found that under optimum conditions the dc- and AM-OB have similar detection limits imposed by the 1/f noise of the photodetectors. It is shown that the Sw-OB can in principle overcome the 1/f noise of the detector and approach the shot-noise limit; however, it is sensitive to switching device imperfections (to first order in smallness), which could easily prevent achieving a detection limit below the 1/f noise. It is also shown that the Sw-OB has i...