Ultrahigh continuous-wave intensities in high-NA optical cavities through suppression of the parametric oscillatory instability
Optics
2026-03-02 v1 Atomic Physics
Abstract
Ultrahigh continuous-wave intensities (>300 GW/cm) in high-NA optical cavities enable applications from phase-contrast electron microscopy to ultradeep dipole traps for molecules. However, the intensity can be limited by the parametric oscillatory instability (PI), where mirror vibrations scatter light from one cavity mode into another. We observe PI in a table-top Fabry-P\'erot cavity, show that the mechanical modes are MHz-frequency bulk acoustic modes inside the mirrors, and measure their factor. By using low- mirrors, we achieve >500 GW/cm intensities in an open, free-space cavity.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2602.23476,
title = {Ultrahigh continuous-wave intensities in high-NA optical cavities through suppression of the parametric oscillatory instability},
author = {L. Maisenbacher and A. Singh and I. M. Pope and H. Müller},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.23476},
year = {2026}
}