Low noise 400 W coherently combined single frequency laser beam for next generation gravitational wave detectors

verfasst von
Felix Wellmann, Nina Bode, Peter Wessels, Ludger Overmeyer, Jörg Neumann, Benno Willke, Dietmar Kracht
Abstract

Design studies for the next generation of interferometric gravitational wave detectors propose the use of low-noise single-frequency high power laser sources at 1064 nm. Fiber amplifiers are a promising design option because of their high output power and excellent optical beam properties. We performed filled-aperture coherent beam combining with independently amplified beams from two low-noise high-power single-frequency fiber amplifiers to further scale the available optical power. An optical power of approximately 400 W with a combining efficiency of more than 93% was achieved. The combined beam contained 370 W of linearly polarized TEM00-mode and was characterized with respect to the application requirements of low relative power noise, relative beam pointing noise, and frequency noise. The noise performance of the combined beam is comparable to the single amplifier noise. This represents, to our knowledge, the highest measured power in the TEM00-mode of single frequency signals that fulfills the low noise requirements of gravitational wave detectors.

Organisationseinheit(en)
Institut für Transport- und Automatisierungstechnik
QuantumFrontiers
Institut für Gravitationsphysik
Externe Organisation(en)
Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH)
Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut)
Typ
Artikel
Journal
Optics express
Band
29
Seiten
10140-10149
Anzahl der Seiten
10
ISSN
1094-4087
Publikationsdatum
29.03.2021
Publikationsstatus
Veröffentlicht
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Atom- und Molekularphysik sowie Optik
Elektronische Version(en)
https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.420350 (Zugang: Offen)