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Published on: August 12, 2013
Stable, mode-matched, medium-finesse optical cavity incorporating a microcantilever mirror: optical characterization
J G E Harris1, B M Zwickl, A M Jayich
1Department of Physics, Yale University, P.O. Box 208284, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA.
Abstract:
A stable optical resonator has been built using a 30-microm-wide, metal-coated microcantilever as one mirror. The second mirror was a 12.7-mm-diameter concave dielectric mirror. By positioning the two mirrors 75 mm apart in a near-hemispherical configuration, a Fabry-Perot cavity with a finesse equal to 55 was achieved. The finesse was limited by the optical loss in the cantilever's metal coating; diffraction losses from the small mirror were negligible. The cavity achieved passive laser cooling of the cantilever's Brownian motion.
