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PUBLICATIONS

Performance of a dual Fabry-Perot cavity refractometer

Published

Author(s)

Patrick F. Egan, Jack A. Stone Jr., Jay H. Hendricks, Jacob E. Ricker, Gregory E. Scace, Gregory F. Strouse

Abstract

We have built and characterized a refractometer that utilizes two Fabry-Perot cavities formed on a dimensionally stable spacer. In the typical mode of operation, one cavity is held at vacuum and the other cavity is filled with nitrogen gas. The differential change in length between the cavities is measured as the difference in frequency between two helium-neon (633 nm) lasers, one locked to the resonance of each cavity. This differential change in optical length is a measure of the gas refractivity. Using the known values for the molar refractivity and virial coefficients of nitrogen, and accounting for cavity length distortions, the device could be used as a high-resolution, multi-decade pressure sensor. We describe the performance of the refractometer and also present the equations needed to calculate pressure from gas refractivity.
Citation
Optics Letters
Volume
40
Issue
17
Pub Type
Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.40.003945

Keywords

Fabry--Perot, metrology, pressure measurement, refraction
Analytical chemistry and Dimensional metrology

Citation

Egan, P. , Stone, J. , Hendricks, J. , Ricker, J. , Scace, G. and Strouse, G. (2015), Performance of a dual Fabry-Perot cavity refractometer, Optics Letters, [online], https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.40.003945 (Accessed October 16, 2025)

Issues

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Created August 18, 2015, Updated June 2, 2021
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