Abstract
The properties of the Fabry-Perot interferometer with an absorbing medium in the cavity have been investigated. When very large reflective finesse etalons are used, the interferometer behaves as a long-path absorption cell with a gain, defined as the ratio of the measured absorption over the sample absorption for the same path as the etalon spacer, equal to C1/2. (C is the etalon contrast.) Practical considerations make the plane Fabry-Perot unsuitable for this use because of the rather large area and surface finesse requirements. The spherical Fabry-Perot, on the other hand, is not constrained in the area requirement and thus appears to be the choice etalon for a long-path absorption cell. The results also show that interference filters, because of their high reflective finesse, have absorption effects which degrade their ultimate performance.
© 1985 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
G. Hernandez
Appl. Opt. 24(22) 3707-3712 (1985)
Freddie Lin, Hung Chou, Eva Strzelecki, and Jeffrey B. Shellan
Appl. Opt. 31(14) 2478-2484 (1992)
Jack A. McKay
Appl. Opt. 38(27) 5851-5858 (1999)