Abstract

We show that temperature compensation based on differential thermal expansion between sapphire and fused silica can be used to create a Fabry–Perot cavity with an exceptionally low coefficient of thermal expansion at low temperatures. We describe the design of such a cavity that utilizes shaped fused silica mirrors and a sapphire spacer. The geometry of the fused silica mirror was designed using a finite element model to have a small platform, giving a frequency temperature turning point of 16.6 K. The measured turning point was 16.2 K and the curvature was 6 × 10⁻¹⁰ K⁻², both of which were consistent with the model.

© 1997 Optical Society of America

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