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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 35: Laseranwendungen (Optische Messtechnik)

Q 35.3: Talk

Thursday, March 13, 2008, 09:00–09:15, 3H

Interferometric testing of a deep parabolic mirror — •Hildegard Konermann, Johannes Schwider, Klaus Mantel, Norbert Lindlein, Markus Sondermann, Ulf Peschel, and Gerd Leuchs — Institut für Optik, Information und Photonik, Max-Planck-Forschungsgruppe, Staudtstraße 7 B2, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany

We present the results of the testing of a deep parabolic mirror that is to be used for excitation of single atoms by single photons with high efficiency. For this purpose, the aberrations of the mirror have to be known with less than 0.1 wavelengths precision. For such a deep mirror with an aperture angle of 135 degree, i.e. nearly 4Pi solid angle, this will be at the limit of the highest possible precision which can be achieved in practice. For the characterization of the parabolic mirror, we use an interferometer of the Fizeau type. We perform a null-test with a metal sphere at the focal point of the parabolic mirror, thus circumventing ambiguities in the localization of surface errors. In order to rule out polarization dependent phase jumps upon reflection off the mirror surface, the parabolic mirror is illuminated with radially polarized light which is also the polarization of the light in the final application for the excitation of single atoms. The results of the measurements are needed for the creation of a phase plate that compensates the deviations of the mirror from an ideal parabola.