Temperature analysis of low-expansion Fabry-Perot cavities.
Temperature dependent structural distortion at the contacted mirrors of low-expansion glass cavities can introduce changes to the cavity length independent of the length of the spacer. There are resulting temperature sensitivities of the path (m/K) at each end of a cavity that are proportional to the difference of the coefficient of thermal expansion (alpha) at the contact. The temperature sensitivity of the resonant frequency can be a minimum at a temperature T(C) if the product of length times alpha(T(C)) of the spacer approximately offsets the combined sensitivities of the ends, even if alpha(T(C)) of the spacer is significantly nonzero.
Fox
Richard W
RW
National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305, USA. richard.fox@nist.gov