Hannover 2010 – wissenschaftliches Programm

Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Downloads | Hilfe

Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 54: Laser Applications: Optical Measurement Technology I

Q 54.2: Vortrag

Donnerstag, 11. März 2010, 14:15–14:30, F 342

Demonstration of sub-picometer length measurements and sub-nanoradian angular read-out in the millihertz-frequency range — •Christian Diekmann, Michael Tröbs, Frank Steier, Iouri Bykov, Gerhard Heinzel, and Karsten Danzmann — Albert-Einstein-Institut Hannover, Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik und Leibniz Universität Hannover

The space-based interferometric gravitational-wave detector Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) requires interferometry with sub-picometer and nanoradian sensitivity in the frequency range between 3 mHz and 1 Hz. Currently, a first prototype of the optical bench for LISA is being designed. We report on a pre-experiment with the aim to demonstrate the required sensitivities and to thoroughly characterise the equipment. For this purpose, a quasi-monolithic optical setup has been built with two Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZI) on an optical bench made of zerodur. In a first step the relative length change between these two MZI will be measured with a heterodyne modulation scheme in the kHz-range and the angle between two laser beams will be read out via quadrant photodiodes and a technique called differential wavefront sensing. These techniques have already been used for the LISA predecessor mission LISA Pathfinder and their sensitivity needs to be further improved to fulfill the requirements of the LISA mission. We describe the experiment and the characterization of the basic components. First measurements of the length and angular noise will be presented.