High-efficiency squeezed light generation for gravitational wave detectors

authored by: Moritz Mehmet, H Vahlbruch
Abstract: The engineering of strongly squeezed vacuum states of light is a key technology for the reduction of quantum noise in gravitational wave detectors. We report on the observation of up to 12.0 dB squeezed vacuum states of light at the wavelength of 1064 nm in the frequency band from 10 Hz to 100 kHz. This is the strongest squeezing reported to date within this detection band. The squeezed states were generated in a half-monolithic, standing-wave cavity optical parametric amplifier, which was resonant for the fundamental and harmonic light fields. We chose appropriate reflectivities to obtain a significant reduction of the required pump power, which was 8.6 mW only. Our analysis revealed that the residual measurement phase noise was smaller than 3.5 mrad rms and that the squeezed light source provided up to 14 dB of squeezing for a downstream application. The experiment was electronically stabilized in all relevant degrees of freedom, demonstrating the applicability of the linear, doubly resonant cavity topology for current and future gravitational wave detectors.
Organisation(s): Institute of Gravitation Physics
External Organisation(s): Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
Type: Article
Journal: Classical and Quantum Gravity
Volume: 36
ISSN: 0264-9381
Publication date: 10.01.2019
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6382/aaf448 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.15488/9836 (Access: Open)

BibTeX

@article{2049980d17fe4697a07cebfc2c4175e6,
title = "High-efficiency squeezed light generation for gravitational wave detectors",
abstract = "The engineering of strongly squeezed vacuum states of light is a key technology for the reduction of quantum noise in gravitational wave detectors. We report on the observation of up to 12.0 dB squeezed vacuum states of light at the wavelength of 1064 nm in the frequency band from 10 Hz to 100 kHz. This is the strongest squeezing reported to date within this detection band. The squeezed states were generated in a half-monolithic, standing-wave cavity optical parametric amplifier, which was resonant for the fundamental and harmonic light fields. We chose appropriate reflectivities to obtain a significant reduction of the required pump power, which was 8.6 mW only. Our analysis revealed that the residual measurement phase noise was smaller than 3.5 mrad rms and that the squeezed light source provided up to 14 dB of squeezing for a downstream application. The experiment was electronically stabilized in all relevant degrees of freedom, demonstrating the applicability of the linear, doubly resonant cavity topology for current and future gravitational wave detectors.",
keywords = "gravitational wave detection, quantum engineering, squeezed vacuum states of light",
author = "Moritz Mehmet and H Vahlbruch",
note = "Funding information: This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through project grant VA 1031/1-1.",
year = "2019",
month = jan,
day = "10",
doi = "10.1088/1361-6382/aaf448",
language = "English",
volume = "36",
journal = "Classical and Quantum Gravity",
issn = "0264-9381",
publisher = "IOP Publishing Ltd.",
number = "1",
}