title: A simple technique for accurate and complete characterisation of a Fabry-Perot cavity.
abstract: It has become a significant challenge to accurately characterise the properties of recently developed very high finesse optical resonators (F > 10(6)). A similar challenge is encountered when trying to measure the properties of cavities in which either the probing laser or the cavity length is intrinsically unstable. We demonstrate in this article the means by which the finesse, mode-matching, free spectral range, mirror transmissions and dispersion may be measured easily and accurately even when the laser or cavity has a relatively poor intrinsic frequency stability.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, WA, Australia.
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Locke
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stuart
authors.forename: E N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Ivanov
authors.forename: A N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Luiten
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000537:Aluminum Oxide / Q000737:chemistry; D002138:Calibration; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D007834:Lasers; D055096:Optical Devices; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D014025:Titanium; D000537:Aluminum Oxide