Passive laser power stabilization via an optical spring

authored by

Torrey Cullen, Scott Aronson, Ron Pagano, Marina Trad Nery, Henry Cain, Jonathon Cripe, Garrett D. Cole, Safura Sharifi, Nancy Aggarwal, Benno Willke, Thomas Corbitt

Abstract

Metrology experiments can be limited by the noise produced by the laser involved via small fluctuations in the laser’s power or frequency. Typically, active power stabilization schemes consisting of an in-loop sensor and a feedback control loop are employed. Those schemes are fundamentally limited by shot noise coupling at the in-loop sensor. In this Letter, we propose to use the optical spring effect to passively stabilize the classical power fluctuations of a laser beam. In a proof of principle experiment, we show that the relative power noise of the laser is stabilized from approximately 2 × 10

⁻⁵ Hz

⁻¹/

² to a minimum value of 1.6 × 10

⁻⁷ Hz

⁻¹/

², corresponding to the power noise reduction by a factor of 125. The bandwidth at which stabilization occurs ranges from 400 Hz to 100 kHz. The work reported in this Letter further paves the way for high power laser stability techniques which could be implemented in optomechanical experiments and in gravitational wave detectors.

Organisation(s)

QuantumFrontiers
Institute of Gravitation Physics

External Organisation(s)

Louisiana State University
Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
Thorlabs
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Northwestern University

Type

Article

Journal

Optics letters

Volume

Pages

2746-2749

No. of pages

ISSN

0146-9592

Publication date

01.06.2022

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2204.00414 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.456535 (Access: Closed)

BibTeX

@article{9e5b9d0245b44348a9b1bd61a246924b,
title = "Passive laser power stabilization via an optical spring",
abstract = "Metrology experiments can be limited by the noise produced by the laser involved via small fluctuations in the laser{\textquoteright}s power or frequency. Typically, active power stabilization schemes consisting of an in-loop sensor and a feedback control loop are employed. Those schemes are fundamentally limited by shot noise coupling at the in-loop sensor. In this Letter, we propose to use the optical spring effect to passively stabilize the classical power fluctuations of a laser beam. In a proof of principle experiment, we show that the relative power noise of the laser is stabilized from approximately 2 × 10 −5 Hz −1/ 2 to a minimum value of 1.6 × 10 −7 Hz −1/ 2, corresponding to the power noise reduction by a factor of 125. The bandwidth at which stabilization occurs ranges from 400 Hz to 100 kHz. The work reported in this Letter further paves the way for high power laser stability techniques which could be implemented in optomechanical experiments and in gravitational wave detectors. ",
author = "Torrey Cullen and Scott Aronson and Ron Pagano and {Trad Nery}, Marina and Henry Cain and Jonathon Cripe and Cole, {Garrett D.} and Safura Sharifi and Nancy Aggarwal and Benno Willke and Thomas Corbitt",
note = "Funding information: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (39083767); National Science Foundation (PHY-1806634, PHY-2110455).",
year = "2022",
month = jun,
day = "1",
doi = "10.48550/arXiv.2204.00414",
language = "English",
volume = "47",
pages = "2746--2749",
journal = "Optics letters",
issn = "0146-9592",
publisher = "OSA - The Optical Society",
number = "11",
}