What are optical cavities used for in practice?

[Istruggle]

Are there any real world uses for optical cavities.
Optical (or laser Cavities) description: where lasers continually bounce off two reflecting mirrors.

 

[sophiecentaur]

Are there any real world uses for optical cavities.
Optical (or laser Cavities) description: where lasers continually bounce off two reflecting mirrors.

Google is your best friend for answering such open ended questions.

 

[Istruggle]

Anywhere I should start

 

[sophiecentaur]

Anywhere I should start

Did you try ""Optical cavity" ? I got a load of hits.

 

[UncertaintyAjay]

Optical (or laser Cavities) description: where lasers continually bounce off two reflecting mirrors.

This is wrong , I reckon.You probably mean light . True, optical cavities are used in lasers to get stimulated emission but you don't actually have lasers bouncing off two mirrors.

 

[Istruggle]

My professor had the subject labeled as laser cavities, but it does make more sense to with light rays.

 

[sophiecentaur]

My professor had the subject labeled as laser cavities, but it does make more sense to with light rays.

It is not clear what you are actually asking about (the context) Lasers incorporate a cavity,(two mirrors) between which the light beam is reflected many times and this causes the laser action.You can also pass a laser beam into an optical cavity in which other effects can be observed. Which were you asking about?

 

[blue_leaf77]

you don't actually have lasers bouncing off two mirrors.

It's actually not that uncommon to have a laser coupled into an external cavity. High power lasers almost always employ amplification stage in which the laser is input to a cavity containing a gain medium.

 

[UncertaintyAjay]

It's actually not that uncommon to have a laser coupled into an external cavity. High power lasers almost always employ amplification stage in which the laser is input to a cavity containing a gain medium.

Thanks for the info!