Skip to main content

Astronomy (thesaurus)

Search from vocabulary

Concept information

Preferred term

optical cavity  

Definition

  • An optical cavity, resonating cavity or optical resonator is an arrangement of mirrors or other optical elements that forms a cavity resonator for light waves. Optical cavities are a major component of lasers, surrounding the gain medium and providing feedback of the laser light. They are also used in optical parametric oscillators and some interferometers. Light confined in the cavity reflects multiple times, producing modes with certain resonance frequencies. Modes can be decomposed into longitudinal modes that differ only in frequency and transverse modes that have different intensity patterns across the cross-section of the beam. Many types of optical cavity produce standing wave modes. (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_cavity)

Broader concept

Narrower concepts

Synonym(s)

  • optical resonator
  • resonating cavity

In other languages

URI

http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/MDL-HDS2TW0K-2

Download this concept: