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Quantification of parasitic etalons in Fabry-Perot cavities and the errors they cause in Pound-Drever-Hall frequency stabilization schemes

Malte Misfeldt1,2,*, Emily Rose Rees3, Andrew Wade3, David Rabeling3, and Kirk McKenzie3

  • *Contact author: Malte.Misfeldt@aei.mpg.de
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Phys. Rev. A 114, 013521 – Published 27 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/c99v-lj3d

Abstract

The Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) scheme is a well-known technique for stabilizing a laser's frequency to a reference length such as an optical cavity. However, if a PDH setup is not carefully designed, one might easily create parasitic etalons, which are caused by back reflections in the optical path. These etalons alter the electric fields being read out and, therefore, decrease the PDH performance. In this paper, we describe these etalons as the amplitude modulation of the nominal PDH signals and identify two different kinds of etalons: internal ones formed within a plane-parallel window and free-space etalons between two interfaces of different optical components. We experimentally probe these two etalons and verify our theory. Furthermore, we employ a dual-modulation scheme that is capable of measuring the optical cavity's Free Spectral Range and discuss the influence of these additional GHz sidebands on the etalons. We conduct this study in the framework of future space-based interferometric laser ranging instruments in DLR/NASA's GRACE-Continuity and ESA's Next-Generation Gravity Mission.

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Phys. Rev. A 114, 013521– Published 27 July, 2026
  • Received 21 April 2026
  • Accepted 1 July 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by Max Planck Society.

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