Paper detail

A Computational and Experimental Analysis of Higher Order Modes in a Strongly Focusing Optical Cavity

Optical cavities operating in the near-concentric regime are the fundamental tools to perform high precision experiments like cavity QED applications. A strong focusing regime unfortunately is prone to excite higher-order modes. Higher-order mode excitation is challenging to avoid for the realistic strong focusing cavities, and if these modes are closely spaced, overall cavity linewidth gets significantly broadened. In this study, a computational method alongside the experiment is provided for the optical mode decomposition into cavity eigenmodes with justified approximations. It is shown that it is possible to recreate the intensity and spectral profile of the cavity transmission, with the provided model. As a result, a more complete treatment of the realistic near-concentric cavities can be done.