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Described is a reflectometer capable of making reflectivity measurements of low-loss highly reflecting mirror coatings and transmission measurements of low-loss antireflection coatings. The technique directly measures the intensity decay time of an optical cavity comprised of low-loss elements. We develop the theoretical framework for the device and discuss in what conditions and to what extent the decay time represents a true measure of mirror reflectivity. Current apparatus provides a decay time resolution of 10 nsec and has demonstrated a cavity total loss resolution of 5 ppm.
Anderson et al. (Sun,) studied this question.