Characterization of the long-term dimensional stability of a NEXCERA block using the optical resonator technique

Abstract

NEXCERA is a machinable and highly polishable ceramic with attractive properties for use in precision instruments, in particular because its coefficient of thermal expansion exhibits a zero crossing at room temperature. We performed an accurate measurement of the long-term drift of the length of a 12~cm long NEXCERA block by using it as a spacer of a high-finesse optical cavity. At room temperature, we found a fractional length drift rate $L^{-1}d\Delta L/dt=-1.74\times 10^{-8}{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$.

References in corpus (4)

• Sub-Hz line width diode lasers by stabilization to vibrationally and thermally compensated ULE Fabry-Perot cavities
• 8E-17 fractional laser frequency instability with a long room-temperature cavity
• A compact, robust, and transportable ultra-stable laser with a fractional frequency instability of $1\times 10^{-15}$
• Simple vibration insensitive cavity for laser stabilization at the 10^{-16} level

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Mechanical loss and stability analysis of NEXCERA in ultra-stable optical cavities
• Cordierite-based optical resonators with extremely low thermal expansion