Heshan Liu

The evaluation of phasemeter prototype performance for the space gravitational waves detection.

Heterodyne laser interferometry is considered as the most promising readout scheme for future space gravitational wave detection missions, in which the gravitational wave signals disguise as small phase variances within the heterodyne beat note. This makes the phasemeter, which extracts the phase information from the beat note, the key device to this system. In this paper, a prototype of phasemeter based on digital phase-locked loop technology is developed, and the major noise sources which may contribute to the noise spectra density are analyzed in detail. Two experiments are also carried out to evaluate the performance of the phasemeter prototype. The results show that the sensitivity is achieved 2π μrad/√Hz in the frequency range of 0.04 Hz-10 Hz. Due to the effect of thermal drift, the noise obviously increases with the frequencies down to 0.1 mHz.

Methodological demonstration of laser beam pointing control for space gravitational wave detection missions

In space laser interferometer gravitational wave (G.W.) detection missions, the stability of the laser beam pointing direction has to be kept at 10 nrad/√Hz. Otherwise, the beam pointing jitter noise will dominate the noise budget and make the detection of G.W. impossible. Disturbed by the residue non-conservative forces, the fluctuation of the laser beam pointing direction could be a few μrad/√Hz at frequencies from 0.1 mHz to 10 Hz. Therefore, the laser beam pointing control system is an essential requirement for those space G.W. detection missions. An on-ground test of such beam pointing control system is performed, where the Differential Wave-front Sensing technique is used to sense the beams pointing jitter. An active controlled steering mirror is employed to adjust the beam pointing direction to compensate the jitter. The experimental result shows that the pointing control system can be used for very large dynamic range up to 5 μrad. At the interested frequencies of space G.W. detection missions, between 1 mHz and 1 Hz, beam pointing stability of 6 nrad/√Hz is achieved.

Principle demonstration of fine pointing control system for inter-satellite laser communication

Due to high data rates and reliability, inter-satellite laser communication has developed rapidly in these days. However, the stability of the laser beam pointing is still a key technique which needs to be solved; otherwise, the beam pointing jitter noise would reduce the communication quality or, even worse, would make the inter-satellite laser communication impossible. For this purpose, a bench-top of the fine beam pointing control system has been built and tested for inter-satellite laser communication. The pointing offset of more than 100 μrad is produced by the steering mirror. With beam pointing control system turned on, the offset could be rapidly suppressed to lower than 100 nrad in less than 0.5 s. Moreover, the pointing stability can be kept at 40 nrad for yaw motion and 62 nrad for pitch motion, when the received beam jitter is set at 20 μrad.

A tunable single-monochromator Raman system based on the supercontinuum laser and tunable filters for resonant Raman profile measurements

Resonant Raman spectroscopy requires that the wavelength of the laser used is close to that of an electronic transition. A tunable laser source and a triple spectrometer are usually necessary for resonant Raman profile measurements. However, such a system is complex with low signal throughput, which limits its wide application by scientific community. Here, a tunable micro-Raman spectroscopy system based on the supercontinuum laser, transmission grating, tunable filters, and single-stage spectrometer is introduced to measure the resonant Raman profile. The supercontinuum laser in combination with transmission grating makes a tunable excitation source with a bandwidth of sub-nanometer. Such a system exhibits continuous excitation tunability and high signal throughput. Its good performance and flexible tunability are verified by resonant Raman profile measurement of twisted bilayer graphene, which demonstrates its potential application prospect for resonant Raman spectroscopy.