Fabry-Pérot etalon walk-off loss in ring cavities

Abstract

Fabry-Pérot etalons are widely used for laser frequency control. Inserting them in laser cavities imparts unavoidable walk-off loss and reduces the output power. Here, we treat the technology-relevant case of the walk-off loss of an etalon in a unidirectional ring cavity, which is a standard design of single-frequency lasers. We provide the theory background by discussing the analytic limits. The loss can be efficiently minimized by realignment, or by proper matching of the etalon’s surface reflectivity with its refractive index. We numerically calculate the loss in the region uncovered by the analytic limits. We discuss practical laser design considerations, and we perform a tilt-tuning experiment in a single-frequency, solid-state laser setup.