Abstract

Fabry-Perot Resonators are of fundamental interest in physics. Resonator inodes have generally been described based on the paraxial equation, which neglects a term from the Helmholtz equation using the assumption of near-axial beams. One can therefore expect the paraxial equation to be insufficient for a complete description of near-concentric resonators due to the large beam divergence, as well as for high-finesse resonators due to the high frequency resolution. Repeated effort has been undertaken to calculate corrections to the eigenmodes and eigenfrequencies of Fabry-Perot resonators predicted by the paraxial approximation [1,2,3]. None of these have taken into account all the considerations necessary to calculate the first order correction to the resonator eigenfrequencies, which include using a three-dimensional model, calculating modes using the vector (rather than scalar) wave equation, and correctly modeling the spherical mirror surface.

© 2009 IEEE