Optical Surfaces Ltd. Supplies Ultra High Precision Plates for Interferometers

Optical Surfaces Ltd is a leading supplier of ultrahigh precision Etalon plates for use in Fabry-Perot interferometers. Etalons are available in two basic forms, air-spaced or solid.

Designed for use at customer-defined wavelengths within the range 190nm to about 2 microns, Optical Surfaces etalons are supplied with wedge angles of 5 minutes of arc for smaller diameters, rising in steps to a wedge angle of 40 minutes of arc for diameters greater than 70mm. They are available as standard in materials including UV grade Silica and Germanium.

Dr Aris Kouris of Optical Surfaces commented "Drawing upon our unique stabilized manufacturing environment and team of skilled optical craftsmen we regularly supply etalons in a range of shapes and sizes with matching accuracies to lambda / 300". He added " Optical Surfaces has built up a worldwide reputation for producing these super-flat components, supplying many customers in scientific institutes, observatories and industry. For example, the set of 165mm diameter Fabry-Perot Etalons that we supplied to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), are a key component lying at the heart of the Millstone Hill Atmospheric science facility operated in cooperation with the University of Pittsburgh (USA). The purpose of this instrument is to measure Doppler shifts in the atmosphere".