Impact of Earth's gravity on Gaussian beam propagation in hemispherical cavities

authored by: S. Ulbricht, J. Dickmann, R. A. Müller, S. Kroker, A. Surzhykov
Abstract: We theoretically investigate the influence of gravity on laser light in a plano concave, i.e., hemispherical optical cavity, operating on Earth. The propagation of light in such a cavity is modeled by a Gaussian beam, affected by the Earth's gravitational field. On laboratory scale, this field is described by the spacetime of homogeneous gravity, known as Rindler spacetime. In that spacetime, the beam is bent downwards and acquires a height dependent phase shift. As a consequence the phase fronts of the laser light differ from those of a usual Gaussian beam. Assuming that the initial beam enters the cavity along its symmetry axis, these gravitational effects cause variations of the beam phase with every cavity round trip. Detailed calculations are performed to investigate how these phase variations depend on the beam parameters and the cavity setup. Moreover, we discuss the implications of our findings for cavity calibration techniques and cavity-based laser stabilization procedures.
External Organisation(s): National Metrology Institute of Germany (PTB)
Technische Universität Braunschweig
Type: Article
Journal: Physical Review D
Volume: 104
ISSN: 2470-0010
Publication date: 15.09.2021
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.104.062002 (Access: Unknown)

BibTeX

@article{6f99d6ed02fe43ca9e8b3f478777605e,
title = "Impact of Earth's gravity on Gaussian beam propagation in hemispherical cavities",
abstract = "We theoretically investigate the influence of gravity on laser light in a plano concave, i.e., hemispherical optical cavity, operating on Earth. The propagation of light in such a cavity is modeled by a Gaussian beam, affected by the Earth's gravitational field. On laboratory scale, this field is described by the spacetime of homogeneous gravity, known as Rindler spacetime. In that spacetime, the beam is bent downwards and acquires a height dependent phase shift. As a consequence the phase fronts of the laser light differ from those of a usual Gaussian beam. Assuming that the initial beam enters the cavity along its symmetry axis, these gravitational effects cause variations of the beam phase with every cavity round trip. Detailed calculations are performed to investigate how these phase variations depend on the beam parameters and the cavity setup. Moreover, we discuss the implications of our findings for cavity calibration techniques and cavity-based laser stabilization procedures.",
author = "S. Ulbricht and J. Dickmann and M{\"u}ller, {R. A.} and S. Kroker and A. Surzhykov",
note = "Funding information: The authors would like to thank Marcel Reginatto for helpful discussions. Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany{\textquoteright}s Excellence Strategy—EXC-2123 QuantumFrontiers—390837967.",
year = "2021",
month = sep,
day = "15",
doi = "10.1103/PhysRevD.104.062002",
language = "English",
volume = "104",
journal = "Physical Review D",
issn = "2470-0010",
publisher = "American Institute of Physics",
number = "6",
}