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Polarization compensation for a birefringent Fabry–Perot interferometer

2004; American Institute of Physics; Volume: 75; Issue: 8 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1063/1.1771488

1527-2400

Zaeil Kim, So Young Kim, Seung‐Koo Lee, Chang Wha Kim, Q‐Han Park, Dae-Yeong Cho,

Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates

We built a Fabry–Perot interferometer for an atom-trapping experiment and devised a procedure to characterize and compensate the birefringence coming from the mirrors. Our design of the mirror mounts is compatible with the ultrahigh vacuum environment and it allows easy and durable alignment. The mounts provide mechanical stability but at the expense of measurable stress-induced mirror reflection birefringence. We developed an intuitive but mathematically general theory to describe the interferometer birefringence. The theory allows us to measure the birefringence in a systematic way. It also provides us with a prescription to compensate it and to create desired polarization state inside the interferometer by using a pair of common wave plates. We successfully applied the procedure to our Fabry–Perot interferometer to demonstrate its usefulness.