Kavli Affiliate: Peter Fritschel
| First 5 Authors: Varun Srivastava, Georgia Mansell, Camille Makarem, Minkyun Noh, Richard Abbott
| Summary:
The detectors of the laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory
(LIGO) are broadly limited by the quantum noise and rely on the injection of
squeezed states of light to achieve their full sensitivity. Squeezing
improvement is limited by mode mismatch between the elements of the squeezer
and the interferometer. In the current LIGO detectors, there is no way to
actively mitigate this mode mismatch. This paper presents a new deformable
mirror for wavefront control that meets the active mode matching requirements
of advanced LIGO. The active element is a piezo-electric transducer, which
actuates on the radius of curvature of a 5 mm thick mirror via an axisymmetric
flexure. The operating range of the deformable mirror is 120+-8 mD in vacuum,
with an additional 200 mD adjustment range accessible out of vacuum. The
scattering into higher-order modes is measured to be <0.2% over the nominal
beam radius. These piezo-deformable mirrors meet the stringent noise and vacuum
requirements of advanced LIGO and will be used for the next observing run (O4)
to control the mode-matching between the squeezer and the interferometer.
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