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Updated: Jan 19, 2026

Construction and Characterization of External Cavity Diode Lasers for Atomic Physics
Published on: April 24, 2014
Near-infrared scanning cavity ringdown for optical loss characterization of supermirrors
Abstract:
A cavity ringdown system for probing the spatial variation of optical loss across high-reflectivity mirrors is described. This system is employed to examine substrate-transferred crystalline supermirrors and to quantify the effect of manufacturing process imperfections. Excellent agreement is observed between the ringdown-generated spatial measurements and differential interference contrast microscopy images. A 2-mm diameter ringdown scan in the center of a crystalline supermirror reveals highly uniform coating properties with excess loss variations below 1 ppm.
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