Using gravitational light deflection in optical cavities for laser frequency stabilization

authored by

S. Ulbricht, J. Dickmann, A. Surzhykov

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the propagation of light in the presence of a homogeneous gravitational field. To model this, we derive the solutions of the wave equation in Rindler spacetime, which account for gravitational redshift and light deflection. The developed theoretical framework is used to explore the propagation of plane light waves in a horizontal Fabry-Pérot cavity. We pay particular attention to the cavity output power. It is shown that this power depends not only on the input frequency but also on the vertical position of a detector. We state that the height-dependent detector signal arising from the cavity internal light deflection effect also opens a new alternative way to frequency stabilization in Earth-based laser experiments and to study gravitational light deflection at laboratory scales.

External Organisation(s)

Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt PTB
Technische Universität Braunschweig

Type

Article

Journal

Physical Review D

Volume

109

ISSN

2470-0010

Publication date

18.01.2024

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2304.01069 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.022005 (Access: Closed)