The Advanced LIGO photon calibrators

Karki, S. et al. (2016) The Advanced LIGO photon calibrators. Review of Scientific Instruments, 87(11), 114503. (doi: 10.1063/1.4967303) (PMID:27910445)

Abstract

The two interferometers of the Laser Interferometry Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) recently detected gravitational waves from the mergers of binary black hole systems. Accurate calibration of the output of these detectors was crucial for the observation of these events and the extraction of parameters of the sources. The principal tools used to calibrate the responses of the second-generation (Advanced) LIGO detectors to gravitational waves are systems based on radiation pressure and referred to as photon calibrators. These systems, which were completely redesigned for Advanced LIGO, include several significant upgrades that enable them to meet the calibration requirements of second-generation gravitational wave detectors in the new era of gravitational-wave astronomy. We report on the design, implementation, and operation of these Advanced LIGO photon calibrators that are currently providing fiducial displacements on the order of 10−18m/Hz⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯√ with accuracy and precision of better than 1%.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: LIGO was constructed by the California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology with funding from the National Science Foundation and operates under cooperative Agreement No. PHY-0757058. Advanced LIGO was built under Award No. PHY-0823459. Fellowship support from the LIGO Laboratory for S. Karki, from the LIGO Laboratory and the UTRGV College of Sciences for D. Tuyenbayev, and from the Italian National Institute of Physics for N. De Lillo is gratefully acknowledged. This work was also supported by the following NSF Grant Nos. PHY-1607336 for S. Karki, HRD-1242090 for D. Tuyenbayev, PHY-1404139 for S. Kandhasamy, and PHY-1607178 for M. Wade. This paper carries LIGO Document No. LIGOP1500249.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: De Lillo, Mr Nicola
• Authors: Karki, S., Tuyenbayev, D., Kandhasamy, S., Abbott, B.P., Abbott, T.D., Anders, E.H., Berliner, J., Betzwieser, J., Cahillane, C., Canete, L., Conley, C., Daveloza, H.P., De Lillo, N., Gleason, J.R., Goetz, E., Izumi, K., Kissel, J.S., Mendell, G., Quetschke, V., Rodruck, M., Sachdev, S., Sadecki, T., Schwinberg, P.B., Sottile, A., Wade, M., Weinstein, A.J., West, M., and Savage, R.L.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering
• Journal Name: Review of Scientific Instruments
• Publisher: AIP Publishing
• ISSN: 0034-6748
• ISSN (Online): 1089-7623
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2016 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Review of Scientific Instruments 87(11):114503
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher