Demonstration of a recombined Fabry-Perot-Michelson interferometer with suspended mirrors

We describe preliminary experimental results concerning the operation of a 3 m arm-length Michelson interferometer with two Fabry-Perot cavities whose mirrors and beam splitter are suspended independently by wires. The reflected light beams from the two Fabry-Perot cavities are recombined to obtain interference at a photo-detector; this scheme is necessary for future power-recycled laser interferometers used to detect gravitational waves. The fundamental properties of the interferometer are presented, including the power spectral density of the displacement noise.     

The effect of variation of the Fabry-Perot-Michelson interferometer parameters on the sensitivity of interferometric detectors of gravitation waves

The characteristics of a laser Fabry-Perot-Michelson interferometer intended for detecting ultrasmall displacements caused by gravitational waves are investigated. The results of numerical calculations of the signal-to-shot-noise ratio variations as a result of emergence of asymmetry in the arms (e.g., in the case of disbalance of loss and transmittance of the mirrors in two Fabry-Perot interferometers) are considered. The required degree of laser and interferometer mode matching is estimated and the effect of the output mode cleaner is revealed.     

双边缘技术多普勒测风激光雷达标准具的优化

 优化了基于双边缘技术的直接测风多普勒激光雷达中F-P标准具的工作参数。确定激光谱宽后，选择适当的F-P标准具自由谱间距，可正确消除瑞利背景噪声的影响。分析了标准具镜面缺陷、非严格平行和入射光束发散角对其透过率曲线的影响。将标准具透过率函数表达为唯一系统参数，即反射精细度的函数；通过计算散粒噪声极限时的相对测量误差，可确定最优反射精细度以及激光频率相对标准具透过率中心频率的最佳偏置；由最优反射精细度可得到入射到标准具光束的最大发散角和标准具的最小通光口径。     

Limitations of atom interferometry for gravitational wave observations in space

A paper published recently (Hogan et al. in Gen. Relativ. Gravit. 43:1953–2009, 2011) suggests the use of atom interferometry between satellites in Earth orbit to observe gravitational waves. The proposed altitude and satellite separation are about 1,000 and 30 km respectively. The difference in acceleration between clouds of ultracold atoms in atom interferometers near the two satellites would be detected by using laser beams between the interferometers. Because of the measurement path being very short compared with the million km or longer measurement path for a proposed laser interferometer gravitational wave antenna in space, the sensitivity to differential fluctuations in the laser phase as seen by the atoms in the two atom interferometers is very high. Problems introduced by this high sensitivity to spurious laser beam phase changes will be described in the first part of this paper. Then other limitations on the performance and on the suggested types of sources that could be observed will be discussed.     

A reflection interferometer with transmission-like characteristics as an element of interferometric gravitational wave detectors

It is proposed to replace the Fabry-Perot interferometers incorporated into the combined Fabry-Perot-Michelson interferometer (FPMI) by transmission-like reflection interferometers (TRIs), creating bright (transmission-like) interference fringes in the reflected light. TRIs employ asymmetric metal-dielectric mirrors with a “matching” absorbing layer. The calculations show that the shot noise-limited sensitivity of an FPMI with TRIs is nearly as high as that of a conventional FPMI (for the same quality of dielectric coatings). In the presence of scattered light or when the laser and interferometer modes are not coupled well enough, the new version of the FPMI offers considerable advantages due to the mode-filtering properties of a TRI.     

Optimal interferometer designs for optical coherence tomography

We introduce a family of power-conserving fiber-optic interferometer designs for low-coherence reflectometry that use optical circulators, unbalanced couplers, and (or) balanced heterodyne detection. Simple design equations for optimization of the signal-to-noise ratio of the interferometers are expressed in terms of relevant signal and noise sources and measurable system parameters. We use the equations to evaluate the expected performance of the new configurations compared with that of the standard Michelson interferometer that is commonly used in optical coherence tomography (OCT) systems. The analysis indicates that improved sensitivity is expected for all the new interferometer designs, compared with the sensitivity of the standard OCT interferometer, under high-speed imaging conditions.     

Gravitational wave detection with single-laser atom interferometers

We present a new general design approach of a broad-band detector of gravitational radiation that relies on two atom interferometers separated by a distance L. In this scheme, only one arm and one laser will be used for operating the two atom interferometers. We consider atoms in the atom interferometers not only as perfect inertial reference sensors, but also as highly stable clocks. Atomic coherence is intrinsically stable and can be many orders of magnitude more stable than a laser. The unique one-laser configuration allows us to then apply time-delay interferometry to the responses of the two atom interferometers, thereby canceling the laser phase fluctuations while preserving the gravitational wave signal in the resulting data set. Our approach appears very promising. We plan to investigate further its practicality and detailed sensitivity analysis.     

Sources and technology for an atomic gravitational wave interferometric sensor

We study the use of atom interferometers as detectors for gravitational waves in the mHz–Hz frequency band, which is complementary to planned optical interferometers, such as laser interferometer gravitational wave observatories (LIGOs) and the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). We describe an optimized atomic gravitational wave interferometric sensor (AGIS), whose sensitivity is proportional to the baseline length to power of 5/2, as opposed to the linear scaling of a more conservative design. Technical challenges are briefly discussed, as is a table-top demonstrator AGIS that is presently under construction at Berkeley. We study a range of potential sources of gravitational waves visible to AGIS, including galactic and extra-galactic binaries. Based on the predicted shot noise limited performance, AGIS should be capable of detecting type Ia supernovae precursors within 500 pc, up to 200 years beforehand. An optimized detector may be capable of detecting waves from RX J0806.3+1527.     

Confocal Fabry-Perot interferometer for frequency stabilization of laser

The frequency shift of laser source of Doppler lidar is required in the range of a few megahertzs. To satisfy this demand, a confocal Fabry-Perot (F-P) interferometer was manufactured as the frequency standard for frequency stabilization. After analyzing and contrasting the center frequency shift of confocal Fabry-Perot interferometers that are made of three different types of material with the change of temperature, the zerodur material was selected to fabricate the interferometer, and the cavity mirrors were optically contacted onto the end of spacer. The confocal Fabry-Perot interferometer was situated within a double-walled chamber, and the change of temperature in the chamber was less than 0.01 K. The experimental results indicate that the free spectral range is 500 MHz, the full-width at half maximum is 3.33 MHz, and the finesse is 150.     

All-reflective Michelson, Sagnac, and Fabry-Perot interferometers based on grating beam splitters

All-reflective Michelson, Sagnac, and Fabry-Perot interferometers based on grating beam splitters are experimentally demonstrated at a wavelength of 1064 nm. A 1200-groove/mm grating diffracting 0 and -1 orders with an efficiency of 48.2% for each order was used as a near-50/50 beam splitter. The all-reflective Sagnac and Michelson interferometers were formed by reintroducing both of the diffracted beams back to the grating. The Fabry-Perot interferometer was formed in a Littrow configuration by using a 1700-groove/mm grating with a blazing efficiency of 91% as a cavity coupler. These interferometers encompass all the fundamental configurations of all-reflective laser interferometric gravitational-wave detectors, promising improved wave-front quality by avoiding volume thermal effects in transmissive optics under high-power laser illumination.     

Performance study and assessment of phase noise suppression by incoherent addition in a mode-locked fiber laser system

This paper investigates the effectiveness of phase noise suppression by incoherent addition in a passively mode-locked fiber laser. Incoherent addition is achieved by using an interferometer external to the mode-locked laser. Two different types of interferometers, Mach–Zehnder and ring, are investigated experimentally for different background phase noise levels. Measurements show that both types of interferometers can achieve good phase noise reduction for a background phase noise level above ? 130 dBc/Hz. Effects of dispersion management and pulse train intensity ratio in the interferometers are also discussed. Multi-stage cascaded interferometers are proposed for supermode noise suppression of harmonically actively mode-locked lasers.     

Investigation of the spectral content of a cw CO laser output using a high-resolution scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer

The use of a scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer of variable length (variable resolution) for investigating the output of a cw CO laser is reported. Under experimental conditions required to achieve maximum power it was found that the laser output consisted of two or more simultaneously occuring transitions due to the overlapping nature of the vibration- rotation bands. The frequency differences between these transitions were measured to an accuracy of 0.01 cm^-1. Operation of the CO laser on a single vibration-rotation transition was obtained by controlling the laser gain with the experimental variables of discharge pressure, gas temperature, and optical alignment. An alternative approach of obtaining monochromatic radiation, by using a Fabry-Perot interferometer as a frequency selective filter external to the CO laser, is reported.     

Demonstration of a squeezed-light-enhanced power- and signal-recycled Michelson interferometer

We report on the experimental combination of three advanced interferometer techniques for gravitational wave detection, namely, power recycling, detuned signal recycling, and squeezed field injection. For the first time, we experimentally prove the compatibility of especially the latter two. To achieve a broadband nonclassical sensitivity improvement, we applied a filter cavity for compensation of quadrature rotation. The signal-to-noise ratio was improved by up to 2.8 dB beyond the coherent state's shot noise. The complete setup was stably locked for arbitrary times and characterized by injected single-sideband modulation fields.     

Experimental demonstration of a squeezing-enhanced power-recycled michelson interferometer for gravitational wave detection

Interferometric gravitational wave detectors are expected to be limited by shot noise at some frequencies. We experimentally demonstrate that a power recycled Michelson with squeezed light injected into the dark port can overcome this limit. An improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio of 2.3 dB is measured and locked stably for long periods of time. The configuration, control, and signal readout of our experiment are compatible with current gravitational wave detector designs. We consider the application of our system to long baseline interferometer designs such as LIGO.     

Search for a stochastic background of 100-MHz gravitational waves with laser interferometers

This Letter reports the results of a search for a stochastic background of gravitational waves (GW) at 100 MHz by laser interferometry. We have developed a GW detector, which is a pair of 75-cm baseline synchronous recycling (resonant recycling) interferometers. Each interferometer has a strain sensitivity of approximately 10;{-16} Hz;{-1/2} at 100 MHz. By cross-correlating the outputs of the two interferometers within 1000 seconds, we found h{100};{2}Omega_{gw}<6 x 10;{25} to be an upper limit on the energy density spectrum of the GW background in a 2-kHz bandwidth around 100 MHz, where a flat spectrum is assumed.     

Interferometric precision measurements with Bose–Einstein condensate solitons formed by an optical lattice

We propose the precision measurement of both angular rotation and of the gradient magnetic of a field based on the use of matter wave interferometers with soliton states of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). We consider the formation of these soliton states in a BEC with negative scattering length by an optical lattice produced by two counterpropagating laser beams. We determine the parameters of both the initial condensate and the optical radiation necessary for the formation of coherent solitons. We demonstrate that this interferometer can be used to measure magnetic field gradient with a precision of 10^-2 pT/cm. Our calculations show that the sensitivity of a gyroscope based on a ring, two-port matter wave interferometer can achieve 2.6×10^-7 rad s^-1. The precision of this method is more than ten times greater than in that of rotating interferometer with cooled atoms.     

In-Fiber Fabry-Perot and Mach-Zehnder interferometers based on hollow optical fiber fabricated by arc fusion splicing with small lateral offsets

Two kinds of in-line all-fiber interferometers, including tip Fabry-Perot interferometer and compact Mach-Zehnder interferometer, are proposed and demonstrated by fusion splicing a short section of hollow optical fiber (HOF) to the end of single-mode fiber (SMF) and sandwiching a section of HOF in between two sections of SMF, respectively. In both interferometers, a small lateral offset is introduced to induce the optical path difference required to form the interferometer. Temperature responses of both types of interferometers are studied experimentally. It is anticipated that such easy making, compact and low-cost fiber-optic interferometers could find important applications in practice.     

A null method for making absolute measurements of the reflectivity of transparent solids with high precision

A null method is described for making absolute measurements of the surface reflectivity of transparent solids with high precision ( ≈ 1 part in 10⁴). The phase sensitivity of a two beam interferometer is used to separate signatures of different order produced by multiple reflections in the air gap of a Fabry-Perot etalon constructed from the specimen. Then, by using two apertures in front of the etalon and two moving mirrors, signatures of different order are brought simultaneously to the output port of the interferometer. A difference signal is produced by subtracting the two signatures either optically or electronically, and the apertures are adjusted to produce a null output. The experimental value of the reflectivity is determined by the ratio of the areas of the two apertures and is independent of the photometric accuracy of the detector. The method should also be suitable for investigating weak structure in the reflectivity of transparent solids at the level of ≈ 10⁻⁵ or less.     

Stable single-longitudinal-mode fiber laser using PM FBG F-P etalon and PM fiber saturable absorber

we present a stable and high efficiency single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) fiber ring laser by using polarization-maintaining fiber Bragg grating Fabry-Perot (PM FBG F-P) etalon combining PM fiber saturable absorber. The PM FBG F-P etalon, which is directly fabricated in hydrogen-loaded PM fiber, is used as reflector and mode-selecting component to reduce the longitudinal-mode density greatly. Meanwhile, a segment un-pumped PM Er³⁺-doped fiber (EDF) serves as saturable absorber to suppress mode hopping and ensure the stable SLM operation. Stable SLM laser output at 1550.4 nm with linewidth of 2.0 kHz is observed. Laser output power is 43.7 mW for a pump power of 148 mW, optical-optical efficiency is 29.5% and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is larger than 55 dB.     

基于飞秒光频梳的压电陶瓷闭环位移控制系统

利用飞秒光频梳、外腔可调谐半导体激光器和法布里-珀罗干涉仪建立了一套压电陶瓷亚纳米级闭环位移控制系统. 将可调谐半导体激光器锁定至光频梳, 通过精确调谐光频梳的重复频率, 实现了半导体激光器在其工作频率范围内的精密调谐. 利用Pound-Drever-Hall锁定技术将带有压电陶瓷的法布里-珀罗腔锁定至半导体激光器, 进而通过频率发生系统控制压电陶瓷产生亚纳米级分辨率的位移. 实验研究发现锁定至光频梳后可调谐半导体激光器1 s的Allan标准偏差为1.68×10^-12, 将其在30.9496 GHz范围内进行连续闭环调谐, 可获得压电陶瓷的位移行程约为4.8 μm; 以3.75 Hz的步长扫描光频梳的重复频率, 实现了压电陶瓷的450 pm闭环位移分辨率并测定了压电陶瓷的磁滞特性曲线. 该系统不存在非线性测量误差, 且激光频率及压电陶瓷位移均溯源至铷钟频率源. 关键词： 光频梳 压电陶瓷 法布里-珀罗腔 可调谐半导体激光器