Diffractive beam splitter characterization via a power-recycled interferometer

Opt Lett. 2008 Jan 15;33(2):101-3. doi: 10.1364/ol.33.000101.

Abstract

We used the high-precision laser interferometer technique of power recycling to characterize the optical loss of an all-reflective grating beam splitter. This beam splitter was used to set up a Michelson interferometer with a power-recycling resonator with a finesse of 883. Analyzing the results obtained, we determined the beam splitter's total optical loss to be (0.193+/-0.019)%. Low loss all-reflective beam splitters might find application in future high-power laser interferometers for the detection of gravitational waves.