Stable and rugged etalon for the Dynamics Explorer Fabry-Perot interferometer. 1: Design and construction
Abstract
The cemented etalons are shown to be rugged and highly stable for high-resolution spectroscopy and to be well suited to space applications. The etalons will be of considerable value as the tuning elements of dye laser systems and as the stable spectral disperser for pulse and CW laser spectroscopy. Even for etalons 15 cm in diameter, the strength of the cemented bond is greatly in excess of the maximum steady and impulsive forces experienced from the much larger etalon plate mass (2-4 kg rather than 200 g). It is thought that the small but systematic and significant positive increment in the thermal expansion coefficient which occurs when an etalon and its spacers are cemented may be linked to the cessation of the microscopic migration that occurs with an optically contacted bond under thermal or mechanical stress. The etalon comprises two flat plates of fused silica, with spacers constructed of Zerodur (a polycrystalline glass ceramic of extremely low expansion coefficient) which are cemented together using cyanoacrylic adhesives.
- Publication:
-
Applied Optics
- Pub Date:
- November 1982
- DOI:
- 10.1364/AO.21.003896
- Bibcode:
- 1982ApOpt..21.3896R
- Keywords:
-
- Atmospheric Sounding;
- Dynamics Explorer Satellites;
- Fabry-Perot Interferometers;
- Satellite-Borne Instruments;
- Wind Measurement;
- Winds Aloft;
- Ceramics;
- Design Analysis;
- Fabrication;
- Test Facilities;
- Spacecraft Instrumentation;
- INTERFEROMETRY;
- FABRY PEROT;
- SPACE OPTICS