I

instrumentation: interferometers

Finesse is a fast and easy-to-use Python-based interferometer simulation program. It uses frequency-domain optical modelling to build accurate quasi-static simulations of arbitrary interferometer configurations.

For convenience, a number of standard analyses can be performed automatically by the program, namely computing modulation-demodulation error signals, transfer functions, quantum-noise-limited sensitivities, and beam shapes. The optical system can be modelled using the plane-wave approximation or Hermite-Gauss modes, allowing the computation of optical systems like telescopes or the effects of mode matching and mirror angular positions.