Finding the Finer Things With Fabry-Perot

Abstract

In many modern optical experiments, it is necessary to be able to measure the wavelength components of a light source to a high degree of precision. Most commercial spectrometers, devices used to measure the wavelength components, are not able to resolve to a high degree the precise wavelength components in a light source. There is inherently some loss of accuracy in these measurements. Fabry-Pérot Interferometers (FPI), on the other hand, operate on the principle of the interference nature of light in order to measure the wavelengths present in a light source, and they are able to resolve the wavelength components to a much higher degree of accuracy. My capstone has been to take a commercially available FPI and write a program, using a software known as LabView, to interface with this FPI and generate the high-precision spectrum which is produced from the FPI.