Simultaneous mapping of reflectance, transmittance and optical loss of highly reflective and anti-reflective coatings with two-channel cavity ring-down technique.

Abstract

We demonstrate the use of a two-channel cavity ring-down (CRD) technique for simultaneously measuring/mapping the reflectance R, transmittance T and optical loss L (absorption plus scattering losses) of highly reflective (HR) and anti-reflective (AR) laser components. High reflectance/transmittance of HR/AR components is measured with the ring-down time of CRD signals, while the low residual transmittance/ reflectance of HR/AR components is determined by the amplitude ratio of two CRD signals, and the optical loss is then determined via L = 1-R-T. Experiments are performed to measure and map R, T, and L of HR mirrors with different transmittance levels from below 1ppm to about 70 ppm (part-per-million) and of one AR window at 635nm. For a 4 ppm-transmittance HR mirror, the measured R, T, and L at one position are 99.99821 ± 0.00004%, 4.042 ± 0.008 ppm and 13.9 ± 0.4 ppm, respectively. For the AR sample, the measured T, R, and L at one position are 99.99279 ± 0.00004%, 50.0 ± 0.7 ppm and 22.0 ± 0.4 ppm, respectively. The sub-ppm standard deviations for R, T, and L indicate the high accuracy of the two-channel CRD technique for the simultaneous measurements of reflectivity, transmittance and optical loss of HR and AR components. High-resolution mappings of R, T, and L of both HR and AR samples are demonstrated. The simultaneous measurements/mappings of reflectance, transmittance, and optical loss with sub-ppm accuracy are of great importance to the preparation of high-performance laser optics for applications such as gravitational-wave detection and laser gyroscopes.