Construction Guidelines for Universal Scanning Fabry-Perot Interferometer Kit

Version 1.00 (25-Jan-2021)
Copyright © 1994-2021
Sam Goldwasser
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Introduction

These guidelines apply to the Universal SFPI kit, which include parts to construct most of the other spherical mirror SFPIs for YOR (Red-Orange-Yellow) wavelengths. Specifically, it has the complete set of parts for the 1.75 GHz "Deluxe SFPI YOR 590-650 nm SFPI" and additional parts to construct a variety of YOR high resolution SFPIs. At a minimum, the following are included:

Complete Deluxe YOR 590-650 nm SFPI kit: 4 inch cage rods, 3 cage plates, 42 mm RoC >99.5%R YOR mirrors, mirror adapter, PZT, photodiode, prototyping board to mount photodiode, etc.
Several sets of cage rods to extend cavity length to at least 24 inches if the Deluxe kit rods are used; 20 inches if not. These are typically 1.5" or 2", 3", 4", 6", and 8" with enough 4-40 set-screws to join them. So it should be possible to construct both the Deluxe YOR 590-650 nm SFPI and an additional SFPI with a cavity length up to >20 inches (>0.5 meter), sufficient for the Deluxe High Resolution SFPI YOR 590-650 nm with one half the confocal spacing.
Thorlabs KC1 adjustable mirror mount (to be used for PZTs in the longer setups).
Two cage plates.
Iris diaphragm with ~1 to 12 mm aperture to attach to front cage plate to aid in alignment.
Small kinematic mount for the front mirror.
Small translation stage for the front mirror mount to facilitate cavity length tuning.
Three additional PZTs with center holes.
Several mounting plates to construct base, adapters, and spacers, though additional hardware will probably be needed subject to the state of your junk drawers and salvage skills. ;-)
Additional photodiodes.
1 meter RoC 99.3-99.7%R ROY mirrors.
60 cm RoC 99.99%+% R mirrors.
(Optional) Dual polarization parts with small ROY PBS cube and additional pair of photodiodes.

Detailed construction guidelines for each of the specific SFPIs may be found in the manuals for the Deluxe Scanning Fabry-Perot Interferometer Kit (also known as SFPI Kit 2) and Long and High Resolution Scanning Fabry-Perot Interferometer Kits.

If you're new to SFPIs, I would recommend starting with the set of parts for the Deluxe Scanning Fabry-Perot Interferometer Kit as that will definitely be several orders of magnitude simpler to construct and align than one with a cavity length of half a meter. After that, perhaps one with a cavity length of 11.54" (29.3 cm) using the 1 meter RoC mirrors, which can be built totally from parts not needed for the short Deluxe SFPI.

And while I don't recommend the Ultra-High Resolution SFPIs using the 60 cm RoC 99.99%+ ROY mirrors for anything other than bragging rights to the highest finesse on your block ;-), they, too, can be configured at either confocal or other cavity lengths for the 60 cm RoC mirrors.

For more on SFPIs, see the section: Scanning Fabry-Perot Interferometers of "Sam's Lsaer FAQ".