An elegant Breadboard of the optical bench for eLISA/NGO

d’Arcio, L. et al. (2017) An elegant Breadboard of the optical bench for eLISA/NGO. Proceedings of the SPIE: The International Society for Optical Engineering, 10564, 105640I. (doi: 10.1117/12.2309257)

Abstract

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, as well as its reformulated European-only evolution, the New Gravitational-Wave Observatory, both employ heterodyne laser interferometry on million kilometer scale arm lengths in a triangular spacecraft formation, to observe gravitational waves at frequencies between 3 × 10−5 Hz and 1 Hz. The Optical Bench as central payload element realizes both the inter-spacecraft as well as local laser metrology with respect to inertial proof masses, and provides further functions, such as point-ahead accommodation, acquisition sensing, transmit beam conditioning, optical power monitoring, and laser redundancy switching. These functions have been combined in a detailed design of an Optical Bench Elegant Breadboard, which is currently under assembly and integration. We present an overview of the realization and current performances of the Optical Bench subsystems, which employ ultraprecise piezo mechanism, ultrastable assembly techniques, and shot noise limited RF detection to achieve translation and tilt metrology at Picometer and Nanoradian noise levels.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: International Conference on Space Optics — ICSO 2012, 9-12 October 2012 Ajaccio, Corsica, France <br/> <br/> This work was funded within the ESA core technology program ”Optical Bench Development for LISA”, ESTEC Contract No. 22331/09/NL/HB.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Robertson, Dr David and Ward, Professor Henry and Perreur-Lloyd, Mr Michael and Fitzsimons, Dr Ewan and Killow, Dr Christian
• Authors: d’Arcio, L., Bogenstahl, J., Diekmann, C., Fitzsimons, E. D., Heinzel, G., Hogenhuis, H., Killow, C. J., Lieser, M., Nikolov, S., Perreur-Lloyd, M., Pijnenburg, J., Robertson, D. I., Taylor, A., Ward, H., Tröbs, M., and Weise, D.
• Subjects: Q Science > QC Physics
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Research Centre: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy > Institute for Gravitational Research
• Research Group: Institute for Gravitational Research
• Journal Name: Proceedings of the SPIE: The International Society for Optical Engineering
• Publisher: SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
• ISSN: 0277-786X
• ISSN (Online): 1996-756X
• ISBN: 9781510616172
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2017 SPIE
• First Published: First published in Proceedings of the SPIE 10564:105640I
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher