Highly stable piezoelectrically tunable optical cavities

Abstract: We have implemented highly stable and tunable frequency references using optical high finesse cavities which incorporate a piezo actuator. As piezo material we used ceramic PZT, crystalline quartz, or PZN-PT single crystals. Lasers locked to these cavities show a relative frequency stability better than 1 x 10^{-14}, which is most likely not limited by the piezo actuators. The piezo cavities can be electrically tuned over more than one free spectral range (> 1.5 GHz) with only a minor decrease in frequency stability. Furthermore, we present a novel cavity design, where the piezo actuator is prestressed between the cavity spacer components. This design features a hermetically sealable intra cavity volume suitable for, e.g., cavity enhanced spectroscopy.