Construction Guidelines for Universal Scanning Fabry-Perot
Interferometer Kit
Version 1.10 (19-Aug-2025)
Copyright © 1994-2025
Sam Goldwasser
--- All Rights Reserved ---
For contact info, please see the
Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ
Email Links Page.
Reproduction of this document in whole or in part is permitted
if both of the following conditions are satisfied:
- This notice is included in its entirety at the beginning.
- There is no charge except to cover the costs of copying.
Introduction
These guidelines apply to the Universal SFPI kit, which
has the complete set of parts for the "Deluxe SFPI" (Type 2 in the eBay listing)
and additional parts to construct a variety of high resolution SFPIs.
The resulting SFPIs can be used with any single spatial mode (TEMoo) laser within
its wavelength range, though they have been designed with narrow beam
HeNe lasers in mind.
At a minimum, the following parts are included:
- Complete Deluxe SFPI kit with either 3.81 cm RoC 525-700 nm mirrors
or 4.2 cm RoC 590-650 nm mirrors. (The default is the 3.81 cm RoC mirrors
since the others are in rather short supply.) The finesse on average is somewhat
higher for the 4.2 cm RoC mirrors but the larger FSR and wider wavelength
range of the 3.81 cm RoC mirrors is probably more beneficial. Also included
is a set of 4 inch cage rods, 3 cage plates, 7.75 mm to 1 inch mirror adapter,
PZT, photodiode, prototyping board to mount photodiode, etc.
- Several sets of cage rods to extend cavity length to at least 24 inches
if the Deluxe kit rods are used; 20 inches if not. These are
typically 1.5" or 2", 3", 4", 6", and 8" with enough 4-40 set-screws
to join them. So it should be possible to construct both the
Deluxe YOR 590-650 nm SFPI and an additional SFPI with a cavity length
up to >20 inches (>0.5 meter), sufficient for the
Deluxe High Resolution SFPI YOR 590-650 nm with one half the
confocal spacing.
- 1 meter RoC 99.3-99.7%R YOR mirrors.
- 60 cm RoC 99.99%+ R mirrors.
- Thorlabs KC1 adjustable mirror mount (to be used for PZTs in the longer
setups).
- Two cage plates.
- Iris diaphragm with ~1 to 12 mm aperture to attach to front cage plate to
aid in alignment.
- Small kinematic mount for the front mirror.
- Small translation stage for the front mirror mount to facilitate cavity
length tuning.
- Three additional PZTs with center holes.
- Several mounting plates to construct base, adapters, and spacers, though
additional hardware will probably be needed subject to the state of your
junk drawers and salvage skills. ;-)
- Additional photodiodes.
- (Optional) Dual polarization parts with small ROY PBS cube and additional
pair of photodiodes.
Detailed construction guidelines for each of the specific SFPIs may be
found in the manuals for the Deluxe Scanning
Fabry-Perot Interferometer Kit (also known as SFPI Kit 2) and
Long and High Resolution Scanning Fabry-Perot
Interferometer Kits.
If you're new to SFPIs, I would recommend starting with the set of parts
for the Deluxe Scanning Fabry-Perot Interferometer Kit as that will
definitely be several orders of magnitude simpler to construct and
align than one with a cavity length of half a meter or more.
After that, perhaps one with a cavity length of 11.54" (29.3 cm) using
the 1 meter RoC mirrors, which can be built totally from parts not
needed for the short Deluxe SFPI.
And while I don't recommend the Ultra-High Resolution SFPIs using the
60 cm RoC 99.99%+ ROY mirrors for anything
other than bragging rights to the highest finesse on your block ;-),
they, too, can be configured at either confocal or other cavity lengths
for the 60 cm RoC mirrors.
For more on SFPIs, see the section:
Scanning Fabry-Perot Interferometers
of "Sam's Lsaer FAQ".