Abstract
Advanced gravitational wave detectors require highly stable, single mode, single frequency and linear polarized laser systems. They have to deliver an output power of ∼200W and need to provide suitable actuators for further stabilization via fast, low noise feedback control systems. We present such a laser system based on sequential Nd:YVO4 amplifiers and its integration into a typical laser stabilization environment. We demonstrate robust low noise operation of the stabilized amplifier system at 195 W, which makes it a viable candidate for use in gravitational wave detectors.
Highlights
With the first detection of gravitational waves in September 2015 [1] a new field of astronomy opened up in which several additional detections have been made since .After the second observing run the gravitational wave detector network, consisting of two advanced LIGO/Virgo observation run of W (LIGO) detectors in the United States [2], the advanced Virgo detector in Italy [3] and the GEO600 detector in Germany [4], published the first catalogue of gravitational waves [5]
The low noise, single mode and single frequency seed laser is a copy of the original enhanced LIGO laser [11]. It consists of a non-planar ring oscillator laser (NPRO) [12] operating at a wavelength of 1064 nm and an output power of 2 W followed by a Nd:YVO4 amplifier with a maximal output power of 35 W
In this paper we showed a long term stable laser system based on solid state amplifiers integrated in a pre-stabilized laser environment
Summary
With the first detection of gravitational waves in September 2015 [1] a new field of astronomy opened up in which several additional detections have been made since . The good sky localization of the neutron star merger by the gravitational wave detectors allowed telescopes to identify the host galaxy of the event by measuring the electromagnetic counterparts of the gravitational wave signal. The sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors is limited by various noise sources that need to be suppressed as much as possible. At frequencies above ∼200 Hz quantum noise, to be more precise photon shot noise, is the limiting noise source for these detectors. This noise is a result of the Poisson distribution of the photons in a laser beam and can mask gravitational wave signals on the interferometer output. In the third section we show how the neoVAN-4S-HP amplifiers perform with frequency and power stabilized seed beam, respectively. At the end of this paper we summarize our results briefly and discuss if the amplifiers can be implemented behind the stabilization loops, or must be part of them
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