Abstract: Method and apparatus for isolating optical feedback in a laser interferometer having a laser light source from which a linear polarized outgoing laser beam of certain polarization orientation is derived. The interferometer also redirects the outgoing laser beam to form a return laser beam directed to a receiver. The outgoing laser beam and the return laser beam are physically close and are substantially parallel. The linearly polarized outgoing laser beam is converted to circular polarization. A portion of the circularly polarized return laser beam directed toward the laser light source is converted back to linear polarization with polarization orientation orthogonal to the polarization orientation of the outgoing laser beam. A portion of the circularly polarized return laser beam directed toward the receiver is converted back to linear polarization with polarization orientation being substantially the same as the polarization orientation of the outgoing laser beam.

Abstract: A measurement averaging counting apparatus employing a randomly phase modulated time base provides resolution improvement when measuring an applied signal comprising time intervals or pulsed frequencies repetitively occurring at rates synchronous to a counter's clock frequency.The phase of a reference frequency is varied in response to a random signal. The phase modulated reference frequency is applied to a frequency multiplier chain which multiplies both the frequency and the effective amount of phase modulation. The randomly phase shifting output of the frequency multiplier chain is applied as a clock signal to a measurement averaging counter thereby destroying coherence between the clock signal and the applied signal and allowing statistical averaging to take place.