Berlin 2014 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 41: Precision measurements and metrology I

Q 41.5: Talk

Thursday, March 20, 2014, 15:15–15:30, DO24 1.101

Simulation and Optimisation of Laser Interferometers — •Christoph Mahrdt, Evgenia Kochkina, Vitali Müller, Sönke Schuster, Benjamin Sheard, Gudrun Wanner, and Gerhard Heinzel — Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik, Hannover

In this talk the main work on interferometer design will be presented which is carried out at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Hannover for the space missions such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), LISA Pathfinder and a planned successor to the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) called GRACE Follow-On. Simulations for the laser interferometers of the aforementioned projects are used to investigate noise coupling mechanisms such as tilt-to-length coupling and to study the dependence of their coupling coefficients on misalignments of optical components. Furthermore, simulations are performed to optimise the interferometer design by developing imaging optics that mitigate tilt-to-length coupling or minimise the effect of stray light. The main tool for these simulations is IfoCad (www.geo600.uni-hannover.de/ifocad/), a software library that is being developed at the Albert Einstein Institute in Hannover since 2008. IfoCad includes routines for Gaussian beam tracing in 3D optical systems, photodiode signal computation, sophisticated optimisation routines and various beam types such as general astigmatic Gaussian beams or higher-order Gaussian modes. The current development focuses on including polarisation and diffraction effects. In this talk IfoCad will be introduced and results for important applications will be presented.