Re: Mirror Mount Question

Iain Mackay wrote:
Optics folks



I'm looking for a manufacturer of a mount suitable for use in the moving mirror in a Michelson Interferometer.



I'm using 1" square mirrors and a 1" cube BS and tried using Edmunds mounts for the mirrors, but I now realise that these are kinematic mounts and are not really suitable for what I want. (I believe that they are designed to provide the maximum freedom of movement with the minimum number of 'screws'. It *is* possible to set up the MI with these mounts, but adjusment in one plane is difficult.



Before I set off on a possibly expensive custom mount I thought I 'd check and see if there is anything out there.





What I'm looking for is a mount that will allow precise 'X' translation possibly with a differential type adjuster (to set the path length) together with a '3 screws set in a triangle' type of mount to allow parallelism and tilt (for controlled fringe formation) in the Z axis to be controlled.



Can anyone point me in the right direction? - a UK supplier preferred but not essential



TIA

Iain M


It depends on your budget and your requirements. In general, a flexure mount will have better smoothness on small scales (> 1 um) but not as good orthogonality as a ball slide, i.e. it will tilt more as you move it in and out. Flexures also don't have nearly the travel of ball slides.

Normally I'd just put a kinematic mirror mount on top of a ball slide from my drawer. Most of the ball slides I have are old Newport and Line Tool ones, but Thor Labs makes decent ones too. If you're planning to use a differential thread on one axis, make sure that one's at the bottom of the stack--otherwise you'll never get it to sit still while you adjust it.

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

BTW to all: Does Thor still ship a box of Lab Snacks along with its larger merchandise? Truly a brilliant strategy for marketing to grad students. (Maybe some ramen noodles next.)
.

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