High-yield fabrication of micromirror templates via feedback-controlled laser ablation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a feedback-controlled laser ablation technique for high-yield, reproducible fabrication of silica micromirror templates with tunable curvature, suitable for advanced optical applications.

Contribution

The authors develop an in situ monitoring and calibration method to produce consistent, high-quality micromirrors with minimal variability, advancing fabrication reliability.

Findings

Achieved low geometric variance of 3% in mirror templates.

Fabricated mirrors with radii of curvature from 20 μm to several hundred μm.

Realized a high-finesse Fabry-Perot microcavity with finesse 37000.

Abstract

We present a high-yield method for fabricating concave micromirror templates in silica using feedback-controlled CO2 laser ablation with precise in situ positioning. Real-time monitoring of the white-light emission generated during ablation is used to terminate laser exposure, thereby reducing shot-to-shot variability in mirror depth and radius of curvature. To ensure reproducible single-shot processing across different substrates, the sample position relative to the laser focus is calibrated using an in situ phase-scanning interferometric microscope integrated into the fabrication workflow. The method enables reliable fabrication of shallow mirror templates with tunable radii of curvature spanning from approximately 20$\mathrm{\mu m}$ to several hundred micrometers, with relative geometric variances as low as 3%. The suitability of the fabricated mirrors for optical resonators is verified by realizing a compact plano-concave Fabry--Perot microcavity with a finesse of 37000 at telecom wavelengths. The setup provides a simple and automated route to reproducible micromirror fabrication for applications in cavity quantum electrodynamics and cavity optomechanics.