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arXiv · 2607.29407

Coating-free monolithic fused silica resonator via total internal reflection for precision laser stabilization

Swadha Pandey·Rodica Martin·Peter Fritschel·Matthew Evans·Evan D. Hall
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Abstract

Brownian noise in the thin-film mirror coatings of optical reference cavities is a fundamental limitation in precision metrology, including gravitational-wave detectors and optical atomic clocks. We demonstrate a monolithic fused silica resonator that eliminates the use of thin-film coatings by operating via total internal reflection (TIR), achieving a finesse of 1225 and an optical mode volume of \qty{50}{mm^3}. To our knowledge, this is the largest mode volume reported for any coating-free monolithic resonator, comparable to state-of-the-art reference cavities. We use the cavity to frequency-stabilize an Nd:YAG laser, and demonstrate its application to precision metrology by operating it in a passive ring gyroscope configuration. This platform circumvents the dominant noise source of conventional reference cavities and provides a pathway toward cryogenic silicon TIR resonators that could surpass current frequency stabilization limits.

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Swadha Pandey, Rodica Martin, Peter Fritschel, Matthew Evans, Evan D. Hall. 2026-07-31. Coating-free monolithic fused silica resonator via total internal reflection for precision laser stabilization. https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.29407

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