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arXiv:gr-qc/0208049 · Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields

Practical speed meter designs for quantum nondemolition gravitational-wave interferometers

Patricia Purdue, Yanbei Chen

Published Dec 27, 2002• 123 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In the quest to develop viable designs for third-generation optical interferometric gravitational-wave detectors (e.g., LIGO-III and EURO), one strategy is to monitor the relative momentum or speed of the test-mass mirrors, rather than monitoring their relative position. A previous paper analyzed a straightforward but impractical design for a speed-meter interferometer that accomplishes this. This paper describes some practical variants of speed-meter interferometers. Like the original interferometric speed meter, these designs in principle can beat the gravitational-wave standard quantum limit (SQL) by an arbitrarily large amount, over an arbitrarily wide range of frequencies. These variants essentially consist of a Michelson interferometer plus an extra ``sloshing'' cavity that sends the signal back into the interferometer with opposite phase shift, thereby cancelling the position information and leaving a net phase shift proportional to the relative velocity. In practice, the sensitivity of these variants will be limited by the maximum light power ${W}_{\mathrm{circ}}$ circulating in the arm cavities that the mirrors can support and by the leakage of vacuum into the optical train at dissipation points. In the absence of dissipation and with squeezed vacuum (power squeeze factor ${e}^{\ensuremath{-}2R}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.1)$ inserted into the output port so as to keep the circulating power down, the SQL can be beat by ${h/h}_{\mathrm{SQL}}\ensuremath{\sim}\sqrt{{W}_{\mathrm{circ}}^{\mathrm{SQL}}{e}^{\ensuremath{-}2R}{/W}_{\mathrm{circ}}}$ at all frequencies below some chosen ${f}_{\mathrm{opt}}\ensuremath{\simeq}100\mathrm{Hz}.$ Here ${W}_{\mathrm{circ}}^{\mathrm{SQL}}\ensuremath{\simeq}800\mathrm{kW}{(f}_{\mathrm{opt}}/100\mathrm{}\mathrm{Hz}{)}^{3}$ is the power required to reach the SQL in the absence of squeezing. (However, as the power increases in this expression, the speed meter becomes more narrow band; additional power and reoptimization of some parameters are required to maintain the wide band. See Sec. III B.) Estimates are given of the amount by which vacuum leakage at dissipation points will debilitate this sensitivity (see Fig. 12); these losses are 10% or less over most of the frequency range of interest $(f\ensuremath{\gtrsim}10\mathrm{Hz}).$ The sensitivity can be improved, particularly at high freqencies, by using frequency-dependent homodyne detection, which unfortunately requires two 4-km-long filter cavities (see Fig. 4).

DOI
10.1103/physrevd.66.122004

Related papers

Analysis of a quantum nondemolition speed-meter interferometer

Patricia Purdue

In the quest to develop viable designs for third-generation optical interferometric gravitational-wave detectors (e.g. LIGO-III and EURO), one strategy is to monitor the relative momentum or speed of the test-mass mirrors rather than monitoring their relative position. This paper describes and analyzes the most straightforward design for a speed meter interferometer that accomplishes this---a design (due to Braginsky, Gorodetsky, Khalili and Thorne) that is analogous to a microwave-cavity speed meter conceived by Braginsky and Khalili. A mathematical mapping between the microwave speed meter and the optical interferometric speed meter is developed and is used to show [in accord with the speed being a quantum nondemolition observable] that in principle the interferometric speed meter can beat the gravitational-wave standard quantum limit (SQL) by an arbitrarily large amount, over an arbitrarily wide range of frequencies, and can do so without the use of squeezed vacuum or any auxiliary filter cavities at the interferometer's input or output. However, in practice, to reach or beat the SQL, this specific speed meter requires exorbitantly high input light power. The physical reason for this is explored, along with other issues such as constraints on performance due to optical dissipation. This analysis forms a foundation for ongoing attempts to develop a more practical variant of an interferometric speed meter and to combine the speed meter concept with other ideas to yield a promising LIGO-III/EURO interferometer design that entails low laser power.

arXiv:gr-qc/0111042•Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields•Jun 25, 2002•55 citations

Conversion of conventional gravitational-wave interferometers into quantum nondemolition interferometers by modifying their input and/or output optics

Harry J. Kimble, Yuri Levin, Andrey B. Matsko +2 more

The LIGO-II gravitational-wave interferometers (ca. 2006--2008) are designed to have sensitivities near the standard quantum limit (SQL) in the vicinity of 100 Hz. This paper describes and analyzes possible designs for subsequent LIGO-III interferometers that can beat the SQL. These designs are identical to a conventional broad band interferometer (without signal recycling), except for new input and/or output optics. Three designs are analyzed: (i) a squeezed-input interferometer (conceived by Unruh based on earlier work of Caves) in which squeezed vacuum with frequency-dependent (FD) squeeze angle is injected into the interferometer's dark port; (ii) a variational-output interferometer (conceived in a different form by Vyatchanin, Matsko and Zubova), in which homodyne detection with FD homodyne phase is performed on the output light; and (iii) a squeezed-variational interferometer with squeezed input and FD-homodyne output. It is shown that the FD squeezed-input light can be produced by sending ordinary squeezed light through two successive Fabry-P\'erot filter cavities before injection into the interferometer, and FD-homodyne detection can be achieved by sending the output light through two filter cavities before ordinary homodyne detection. With anticipated technology (power squeeze factor ${e}^{\ensuremath{-}2R}=0.1$ for input squeezed vacuum and net fractional loss of signal power in arm cavities and output optical train ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{*}=0.01)$ and using an input laser power ${I}_{o}$ in units of that required to reach the SQL (the planned LIGO-II power, ${I}_{\mathrm{SQL}}),$ the three types of interferometer could beat the amplitude SQL at 100 Hz by the following amounts $\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\equiv}\sqrt{{S}_{h}}/\sqrt{{S}_{h}^{\mathrm{SQL}}}$ and with the following corresponding increase $\mathcal{V}=1/{\ensuremath{\mu}}^{3}$ in the volume of the universe that can be searched for a given noncosmological source: $\mathrm{Squeezed}\mathrm{input}---\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\simeq}\sqrt{{e}^{\ensuremath{-}2R}}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.3$ and $\mathcal{V}\ensuremath{\simeq}{1/0.3}^{3}\ensuremath{\simeq}30$ using ${I}_{o}{/I}_{\mathrm{SQL}}=1.$ $Variational\ensuremath{-}output---\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\simeq}{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{*}^{1/4}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.3$ and $\mathcal{V}\ensuremath{\simeq}30$ but only if the optics can handle a ten times larger power: ${I}_{o}{/I}_{\mathrm{SQL}}\ensuremath{\simeq}1/\sqrt{{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{*}}=10.$ $\mathrm{Squeezed}\mathrm{varational}---\ensuremath{\mu}{=1.3(e}^{\ensuremath{-}2R}{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{*}{)}^{1/4}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.24$ and $\mathcal{V}\ensuremath{\simeq}80$ using ${I}_{o}{/I}_{\mathrm{SQL}}=1;$ and $\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\simeq}{(e}^{\ensuremath{-}2R}{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{*}{)}^{1/4}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.18$ and $\mathcal{V}\ensuremath{\simeq}180$ using ${I}_{o}{/I}_{\mathrm{SQL}}=\sqrt{{e}^{\ensuremath{-}2R}/{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{*}}\ensuremath{\simeq}3.2.$

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A new quantum speed-meter interferometer: measuring speed to search for intermediate mass black holes

S. L. Danilishin, E. Knyazev, N. V. Voronchev +5 more

Abstract The recent discovery of gravitational waves (GW) by Advanced LIGO (Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory) has impressively launched the novel field of gravitational astronomy and allowed us to glimpse exciting objects about which we could previously only speculate. Further sensitivity improvements at the low-frequency end of the detection band of future GW observatories must rely on quantum non-demolition (QND) methods to suppress fundamental quantum fluctuations of the light fields used to readout the GW signal. Here we present a novel concept of how to turn a conventional Michelson interferometer into a QND speed-meter interferometer with coherently suppressed quantum back-action noise. We use two orthogonal polarizations of light and an optical circulator to couple them. We carry out a detailed analysis of how imperfections and optical loss influence the achievable sensitivity. We find that the proposed configuration significantly enhances the low-frequency sensitivity and increases the observable event rate of binary black-hole coalescences in the range of $$10^2 - 10^3\,M_ \odot$$ 1 0 2 - 1 0 3 M ⊙ by a factor of up to ~300.

arXiv:1702.01029•Light Science & Applications•May 30, 2018•40 citations

Quantum limited measurements in gravitational wave detectors

Andrew R. Wade

Gravitational waves manifest as a time varying straining of space: they arise from the accelerating motions of large bodies of mass and propagate across the universe at the speed of light as ripples in the fabric of space-time, a fleetingly weak effect so far eluding direct detection. The detection of gravitation waves is expected to yield a rich vein to observational astronomy, complementing existing electromagnetic surveys and revealing a hitherto unexplored range of phenomena. First generation interferometric gravitational wave detectors, notably Enhanced LIGO, achieved strain sensitivities of one part in ten to power twenty-one per square-root-Hertz at 100 Hz with an expected detection rate of 2-3 events per year. Commissioning of a new generation of Advanced LIGO interferometric detectors has concluded recently with a resultant ten-fold sensitivity improvement. Overall their potential event detection space has increased by a factor of 1000. The quantum nature of light within these detectors now limits their sensitivity over most of their frequency range. This quantum noise limit is driven by the vacuum quadrature fluctuations propagated through their open detection ports and represents a fundamental noise floor to their strain sensitivity. This thesis addresses two distinct approaches to quantum noise improvement for future upgrades to advanced detectors. The first addresses the issue of quantum noise by adopting a quantum non-demolition approach to detector readout variables, the so-called `speed-meter’ design. Such a modified instrument samples test mass momentum, a quantity for which time separated measurements commute and are therefore not bound by Heisenberg-like limits. A novel polarisation-folded sloshing cavity type speed-meter is proposed where readout fields are stored and delayed in the orthogonal polarisation of the interferometer’s arms cavities. Here frequency dependence is selected to cancel position like measurements so that only test mass momentum information remains. A quantum noise propagation model is developed and a sensitivity performance is demonstrated that beats the standard quantum limit below 100 Hz over a broad range of frequencies. A second approach to achieve quantum noise enhancement in advanced detectors involves injection of quadrature-squeezed states in the place of vacuum. This dissertation details the development of a prototype squeezed vacuum source suitable to the demanding enhancement requirements for an Advanced LIGO squeezing installation. The construction of a doubly resonant, bow-tie cavity source is presented. This employs a novel monolithic all-glass cavity construction and is vacuum compatible. This design demonstrates the viability of building a cavity using optical contacting as a construction technique for attaching mounting prisms to highly polished fused-silica breadboards. Such a design can be expected to have excellent length noise stability, provide low intrinsic phase noise and would be suitable to mount on seismic isolation stages within the LIGO vacuum envelope. Further, the travelling wave cavity design should provide excellent 50 dB intrinsic backscatter isolation. We demonstrate the first operation of such a complex non-linear device under vacuum, producing 8.6 dB of measured vacuum squeezing down to 10 Hz across the advanced LIGO ‘audio-band’ detection range.

•Jan 1, 2016•0 citations

Speedmeter scheme for gravitational-wave detectors based on EPR quantum entanglement

E. Knyazev, S. L. Danilishin, S. Hild +1 more

We propose a new implementation of a quantum speed meter QND measurement scheme. It employs two independent optical readouts of the interferometer test masses with different values of the bandwidths and of the optical circulating power, whose outputs have to be combined by an additional beamsplitter. Signals at the two outputs of the beamsplitter are proportional to the position and the velocity of the test masses, respectively. The influence of the position meter-like back action force associated with the position signal can be cancelled using the EPR approach by measuring the amplitude quadrature of the beamsplitter common output. • This is an article for the Special Issue in memory of V.B. Braginsky. • We propose a novel and arguably the simplest scheme of a speed meter interferometer. • Speed meters curb quantum noise at low frequencies, boosting the SNR for GW sources. • Combination of readouts of two detectors with distinct bandwidths yields speed signal. • No significant changes of the current GWD infrastructure is necessary for our scheme.

arXiv:1701.01694•Physics Letters A•Oct 18, 2017•22 citations

Quantum variational measurement and the optical lever intracavity topology of gravitational-wave detectors

Farit Ya. Khalili

The intracavity topologies of laser gravitational-wave detectors proposed several years ago are the promising way to obtain sensitivity of these devices significantly better than the Standard Quantum Limit (SQL). In essence, the intracavity detector is a two-stage device where the end mirrors displacement created by the gravitational wave is transferred to the displacement of an additional local mirror by means of the optical rigidity. The local mirror positions have to be monitored by an additional local meter. It is evident that the local meter precision defines the sensitivity of the detector. To overcome the SQL, the quantum variational measurement can be used in the local meter. In this method a frequency-dependent correlation between the meter backaction noise and measurement noise is introduced, which allows us to eliminate the backaction noise component from the meter output signal. This correlation is created by means of an additional filter cavity. In this article the sensitivity limitations of this scheme imposed by the optical losses both in the local meter itself and in the filter cavity are estimated. It is shown that the main sensitivity limitation stems from the filter cavity losses. In order to overcome it, it is necessary to increase the filter cavity length. In a preliminary prototype experiment, an approximate 10 m long filter cavity can be used to obtain sensitivity approximately 2--3 times better than the SQL. For future Quantum Non-Demolition (QND) gravitational-wave detectors with sensitivity about 10 times better than the SQL, the filter cavity length should be within kilometer range.

arXiv:gr-qc/0607028•Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields•Apr 19, 2007•6 citations
In the quest to develop viable designs for third-generation optical interferometric gravitational-wave detectors (e.g., LIGO-III and EURO), one strategy is to monitor the relative momentum or speed of the test-mass mirrors, rather than monitoring their relative position. A previous paper analyzed a straightforward but impractical design for a speed-meter interferometer that accomplishes this. This paper describes some practical variants of speed-meter interferometers. Like the original interferometric speed meter, these designs in principle can beat the gravitational-wave standard quantum limit (SQL) by an arbitrarily large amount, over an arbitrarily wide range of frequencies. These variants essentially consist of a Michelson interferometer plus an extra ``sloshing'' cavity that sends the signal back into the interferometer with opposite phase shift, thereby cancelling the position information and leaving a net phase shift proportional to the relative velocity. In practice, the sensitivity of these variants will be limited by the maximum light power Wcirc{W}_{\mathrm{circ}}Wcirc​ circulating in the arm cavities that the mirrors can support and by the leakage of vacuum into the optical train at dissipation points. In the absence of dissipation and with squeezed vacuum (power squeeze factor e\ensuremath−2R\ensuremath≃0.1){e}^{\ensuremath{-}2R}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.1)e\ensuremath−2R\ensuremath≃0.1) inserted into the output port so as to keep the circulating power down, the SQL can be beat by h/hSQL\ensuremath∼WcircSQLe\ensuremath−2R/Wcirc{h/h}_{\mathrm{SQL}}\ensuremath{\sim}\sqrt{{W}_{\mathrm{circ}}^{\mathrm{SQL}}{e}^{\ensuremath{-}2R}{/W}_{\mathrm{circ}}}h/hSQL​\ensuremath∼WcircSQL​e\ensuremath−2R/Wcirc​​ at all frequencies below some chosen fopt\ensuremath≃100Hz.{f}_{\mathrm{opt}}\ensuremath{\simeq}100\mathrm{Hz}.fopt​\ensuremath≃100Hz. Here WcircSQL\ensuremath≃800kW(fopt/100Hz)3{W}_{\mathrm{circ}}^{\mathrm{SQL}}\ensuremath{\simeq}800\mathrm{kW}{(f}_{\mathrm{opt}}/100\mathrm{}\mathrm{Hz}{)}^{3}WcircSQL​\ensuremath≃800kW(fopt​/100Hz)3 is the power required to reach the SQL in the absence of squeezing. (However, as the power increases in this expression, the speed meter becomes more narrow band; additional power and reoptimization of some parameters are required to maintain the wide band. See Sec. III B.) Estimates are given of the amount by which vacuum leakage at dissipation points will debilitate this sensitivity (see Fig. 12); these losses are 10% or less over most of the frequency range of interest (f\ensuremath≳10Hz).(f\ensuremath{\gtrsim}10\mathrm{Hz}).(f\ensuremath≳10Hz). The sensitivity can be improved, particularly at high freqencies, by using frequency-dependent homodyne detection, which unfortunately requires two 4-km-long filter cavities (see Fig. 4).
In the quest to develop viable designs for third-generation optical interferometric gravitational-wave detectors (e.g. LIGO-III and EURO), one strategy is to monitor the relative momentum or speed of the test-mass mirrors rather than monitoring their relative position. This paper describes and analyzes the most straightforward design for a speed meter interferometer that accomplishes this---a design (due to Braginsky, Gorodetsky, Khalili and Thorne) that is analogous to a microwave-cavity speed meter conceived by Braginsky and Khalili. A mathematical mapping between the microwave speed meter and the optical interferometric speed meter is developed and is used to show [in accord with the speed being a quantum nondemolition observable] that in principle the interferometric speed meter can beat the gravitational-wave standard quantum limit (SQL) by an arbitrarily large amount, over an arbitrarily wide range of frequencies, and can do so without the use of squeezed vacuum or any auxiliary filter cavities at the interferometer's input or output. However, in practice, to reach or beat the SQL, this specific speed meter requires exorbitantly high input light power. The physical reason for this is explored, along with other issues such as constraints on performance due to optical dissipation. This analysis forms a foundation for ongoing attempts to develop a more practical variant of an interferometric speed meter and to combine the speed meter concept with other ideas to yield a promising LIGO-III/EURO interferometer design that entails low laser power.
The LIGO-II gravitational-wave interferometers (ca. 2006--2008) are designed to have sensitivities near the standard quantum limit (SQL) in the vicinity of 100 Hz. This paper describes and analyzes possible designs for subsequent LIGO-III interferometers that can beat the SQL. These designs are identical to a conventional broad band interferometer (without signal recycling), except for new input and/or output optics. Three designs are analyzed: (i) a squeezed-input interferometer (conceived by Unruh based on earlier work of Caves) in which squeezed vacuum with frequency-dependent (FD) squeeze angle is injected into the interferometer's dark port; (ii) a variational-output interferometer (conceived in a different form by Vyatchanin, Matsko and Zubova), in which homodyne detection with FD homodyne phase is performed on the output light; and (iii) a squeezed-variational interferometer with squeezed input and FD-homodyne output. It is shown that the FD squeezed-input light can be produced by sending ordinary squeezed light through two successive Fabry-P\'erot filter cavities before injection into the interferometer, and FD-homodyne detection can be achieved by sending the output light through two filter cavities before ordinary homodyne detection. With anticipated technology (power squeeze factor ${e}^{\ensuremath{-}2R}=0.1$ for input squeezed vacuum and net fractional loss of signal power in arm cavities and output optical train ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{*}=0.01)$ and using an input laser power Io{I}_{o}Io​ in units of that required to reach the SQL (the planned LIGO-II power, ISQL),{I}_{\mathrm{SQL}}),ISQL​), the three types of interferometer could beat the amplitude SQL at 100 Hz by the following amounts $\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\equiv}\sqrt{{S}_{h}}/\sqrt{{S}_{h}^{\mathrm{SQL}}}$ and with the following corresponding increase $\mathcal{V}=1/{\ensuremath{\mu}}^{3}$ in the volume of the universe that can be searched for a given noncosmological source: $\mathrm{Squeezed}\mathrm{input}---\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\simeq}\sqrt{{e}^{\ensuremath{-}2R}}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.3$ and $\mathcal{V}\ensuremath{\simeq}{1/0.3}^{3}\ensuremath{\simeq}30$ using Io/ISQL=1.{I}_{o}{/I}_{\mathrm{SQL}}=1.Io​/ISQL​=1. $Variational\ensuremath{-}output---\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\simeq}{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{*}^{1/4}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.3$ and $\mathcal{V}\ensuremath{\simeq}30$ but only if the optics can handle a ten times larger power: ${I}_{o}{/I}_{\mathrm{SQL}}\ensuremath{\simeq}1/\sqrt{{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{*}}=10.$ $\mathrm{Squeezed}\mathrm{varational}---\ensuremath{\mu}{=1.3(e}^{\ensuremath{-}2R}{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{*}{)}^{1/4}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.24$ and $\mathcal{V}\ensuremath{\simeq}80$ using Io/ISQL=1;{I}_{o}{/I}_{\mathrm{SQL}}=1;Io​/ISQL​=1; and $\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\simeq}{(e}^{\ensuremath{-}2R}{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{*}{)}^{1/4}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.18$ and $\mathcal{V}\ensuremath{\simeq}180$ using ${I}_{o}{/I}_{\mathrm{SQL}}=\sqrt{{e}^{\ensuremath{-}2R}/{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{*}}\ensuremath{\simeq}3.2.$
Abstract The recent discovery of gravitational waves (GW) by Advanced LIGO (Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory) has impressively launched the novel field of gravitational astronomy and allowed us to glimpse exciting objects about which we could previously only speculate. Further sensitivity improvements at the low-frequency end of the detection band of future GW observatories must rely on quantum non-demolition (QND) methods to suppress fundamental quantum fluctuations of the light fields used to readout the GW signal. Here we present a novel concept of how to turn a conventional Michelson interferometer into a QND speed-meter interferometer with coherently suppressed quantum back-action noise. We use two orthogonal polarizations of light and an optical circulator to couple them. We carry out a detailed analysis of how imperfections and optical loss influence the achievable sensitivity. We find that the proposed configuration significantly enhances the low-frequency sensitivity and increases the observable event rate of binary black-hole coalescences in the range of 102−103 M⊙10^2 - 10^3\,M_ \odot102−103M⊙​ 1 0 2 - 1 0 3 M ⊙ by a factor of up to ~300.
Gravitational waves manifest as a time varying straining of space: they arise from the accelerating motions of large bodies of mass and propagate across the universe at the speed of light as ripples in the fabric of space-time, a fleetingly weak effect so far eluding direct detection. The detection of gravitation waves is expected to yield a rich vein to observational astronomy, complementing existing electromagnetic surveys and revealing a hitherto unexplored range of phenomena. First generation interferometric gravitational wave detectors, notably Enhanced LIGO, achieved strain sensitivities of one part in ten to power twenty-one per square-root-Hertz at 100 Hz with an expected detection rate of 2-3 events per year. Commissioning of a new generation of Advanced LIGO interferometric detectors has concluded recently with a resultant ten-fold sensitivity improvement. Overall their potential event detection space has increased by a factor of 1000. The quantum nature of light within these detectors now limits their sensitivity over most of their frequency range. This quantum noise limit is driven by the vacuum quadrature fluctuations propagated through their open detection ports and represents a fundamental noise floor to their strain sensitivity. This thesis addresses two distinct approaches to quantum noise improvement for future upgrades to advanced detectors. The first addresses the issue of quantum noise by adopting a quantum non-demolition approach to detector readout variables, the so-called `speed-meter’ design. Such a modified instrument samples test mass momentum, a quantity for which time separated measurements commute and are therefore not bound by Heisenberg-like limits. A novel polarisation-folded sloshing cavity type speed-meter is proposed where readout fields are stored and delayed in the orthogonal polarisation of the interferometer’s arms cavities. Here frequency dependence is selected to cancel position like measurements so that only test mass momentum information remains. A quantum noise propagation model is developed and a sensitivity performance is demonstrated that beats the standard quantum limit below 100 Hz over a broad range of frequencies. A second approach to achieve quantum noise enhancement in advanced detectors involves injection of quadrature-squeezed states in the place of vacuum. This dissertation details the development of a prototype squeezed vacuum source suitable to the demanding enhancement requirements for an Advanced LIGO squeezing installation. The construction of a doubly resonant, bow-tie cavity source is presented. This employs a novel monolithic all-glass cavity construction and is vacuum compatible. This design demonstrates the viability of building a cavity using optical contacting as a construction technique for attaching mounting prisms to highly polished fused-silica breadboards. Such a design can be expected to have excellent length noise stability, provide low intrinsic phase noise and would be suitable to mount on seismic isolation stages within the LIGO vacuum envelope. Further, the travelling wave cavity design should provide excellent 50 dB intrinsic backscatter isolation. We demonstrate the first operation of such a complex non-linear device under vacuum, producing 8.6 dB of measured vacuum squeezing down to 10 Hz across the advanced LIGO ‘audio-band’ detection range.
We propose a new implementation of a quantum speed meter QND measurement scheme. It employs two independent optical readouts of the interferometer test masses with different values of the bandwidths and of the optical circulating power, whose outputs have to be combined by an additional beamsplitter. Signals at the two outputs of the beamsplitter are proportional to the position and the velocity of the test masses, respectively. The influence of the position meter-like back action force associated with the position signal can be cancelled using the EPR approach by measuring the amplitude quadrature of the beamsplitter common output. • This is an article for the Special Issue in memory of V.B. Braginsky. • We propose a novel and arguably the simplest scheme of a speed meter interferometer. • Speed meters curb quantum noise at low frequencies, boosting the SNR for GW sources. • Combination of readouts of two detectors with distinct bandwidths yields speed signal. • No significant changes of the current GWD infrastructure is necessary for our scheme.
The intracavity topologies of laser gravitational-wave detectors proposed several years ago are the promising way to obtain sensitivity of these devices significantly better than the Standard Quantum Limit (SQL). In essence, the intracavity detector is a two-stage device where the end mirrors displacement created by the gravitational wave is transferred to the displacement of an additional local mirror by means of the optical rigidity. The local mirror positions have to be monitored by an additional local meter. It is evident that the local meter precision defines the sensitivity of the detector. To overcome the SQL, the quantum variational measurement can be used in the local meter. In this method a frequency-dependent correlation between the meter backaction noise and measurement noise is introduced, which allows us to eliminate the backaction noise component from the meter output signal. This correlation is created by means of an additional filter cavity. In this article the sensitivity limitations of this scheme imposed by the optical losses both in the local meter itself and in the filter cavity are estimated. It is shown that the main sensitivity limitation stems from the filter cavity losses. In order to overcome it, it is necessary to increase the filter cavity length. In a preliminary prototype experiment, an approximate 10 m long filter cavity can be used to obtain sensitivity approximately 2--3 times better than the SQL. For future Quantum Non-Demolition (QND) gravitational-wave detectors with sensitivity about 10 times better than the SQL, the filter cavity length should be within kilometer range.