Design of the 10 m AEI prototype facility for interferometry studies

Westphal, T. et al. (2012) Design of the 10 m AEI prototype facility for interferometry studies. Applied Physics B: Lasers and Optics, 106(3), pp. 551-557. (doi: 10.1007/s00340-012-4878-z)

Abstract

The AEI 10 m prototype interferometer facility is currently being constructed at the Albert Einstein Institute in Hannover, Germany. It aims to perform experiments for future gravitational wave detectors using advanced techniques. Seismically isolated benches are planned to be interferometrically interconnected and stabilized, forming a low-noise testbed inside a 100 m3 ultra-high vacuum system. A well-stabilized high-power laser will perform differential position readout of 100 g test masses in a 10 m suspended arm-cavity enhanced Michelson interferometer at the crossover of measurement (shot) noise and back-action (quantum radiation pressure) noise, the so-called Standard Quantum Limit (SQL). Such a sensitivity enables experiments in the highly topical field of macroscopic quantum mechanics. In this article we introduce the experimental facility and describe the methods employed; technical details of subsystems will be covered in future papers.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Hammond, Professor Giles and Hild, Professor Stefan and van Veggel, Dr Marielle and Graef, Dr Christian and Cumming, Dr Alan and Cunningham, Dr Liam and Huttner, Dr Sabina and Strain, Professor Kenneth and Jones, Mr Russell
• Authors: Westphal, T., Bergmann, G., Bertolini, A., Born, M., Chen, Y., Cumming, A.V., Cunningham, L., Dahl, K., Gräf, C., Hammond, G., Heinzel, G., Hild, S., Huttner, S., Jones, R., Kawazoe, F., Köhlenbeck, S., Kühn, G., Lück, H., Mossavi, K., Pöld, J. H., Somiya, K., van Veggel, A.M., Wanner, A., Willke, B., Strain, K.A., Goßler, S., and Danzmann, K.
• 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
• Journal Name: Applied Physics B: Lasers and Optics
• ISSN: 0946-2171
• ISSN (Online): 1432-0649