Low noise near-concentric optical cavity design.

ABSTRACT

Near-concentric cavities are excellent tools for enhancing an atom-light interaction as they combine a small mode volume with a large optical access for atom manipulation. However, they are sensitive to longitudinal and transverse misalignments. To address this sensitivity, we present a compact near-concentric optical cavity system with a residual cavity length variation δLC,rms = 0.36(2) Å. A key part of this system is a cage-like tensegrity mirror support structure that allows us to correct for longitudinal and transverse misalignments. The system is stable enough to allow the use of mirrors with a higher cavity finesse to enhance the atom-light coupling strength in cavity-QED applications.