Paper detail

Wave scattering from rough surfaces for good mirrors

This document takes existing derivations of scattering loss from rough surfaces, and makes them more accessible as a tool to derive the total scattering loss from a rough mirror given its true surface profile. It does not contain any new results and is therefore not intended for submission to a scientific journal in the near future. A rough mirror will diffusively reflect part of an incident wave, limiting the effective specular reflectivity of the mirror. This in turn will limit the finesse of an optical resonator using this mirror. We ask this reflectivity depends on the roughness, in the limit of small roughness. The derivation we will use is based off a detailed and well-written book by JA Ogilvy which is almost always out of the library on loan, is out of print, and we can't find any second-hand copies on the internet. Note that nowhere does Ogilvy use the phrase 'Debye-Waller factor'. We outline how this derivation of scattering loss can be used in practice to calculate the scattering loss given a high-precision experimental measure of mirror profile.