Characterization of thin-film losses with a synchronously pumped ringdown cavity.
We describe the use of a synchronously pumped ringdown cavity for measuring total optical losses, absorption and scattering, in thin optical films of arbitrary thickness on transparent substrates. This technique is compared with a single-pulse ringdown cavity regime and is shown to have a superior signal-to-noise ratio and resolution. We also provide an analysis of the factors affecting the resolution of the technique. Using this ringdown cavity pumped by a conventional mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser, we experimentally detect losses of only 58 +/- 9 and 112 +/- 9 parts per million in Ta2O5 and SiO2 films, respectively. To our knowledge, these are so far the lowest losses measured in thin films on stand-alone transparent substrates.
Vaschenko
Georgiy
G
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA. vaschen@engr.colostate.edu
Godwal
Yogesh
Y
Menoni
Carmen S
CS
Montcalm
Claude
C
Blacker
Richard
R
Siegfried
Daniel
D