T. McRae

Suppressing Rayleigh backscatter and code noise from all-fiber digital interferometers

We configure an all-fiber digital interferometer to eliminate both code noise and Rayleigh backscatter noise from bidirectional measurements. We utilize a sawtooth phase ramp to upconvert code noise beyond our signal bandwidth, demonstrating an in-band noise reduction of approximately two orders of magnitude. In addition, we demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, the use of relative code delays within a digital-interferometer system to eliminate Rayleigh-backscatter noise, resulting in a noise reduction of a factor of 50. Finally, we identify double Rayleigh-backscatter noise as our limiting noise source and suggest two methods to minimize this noise source.

Optomechanical design and construction of a vacuum-compatible optical parametric oscillator for generation of squeezed light

With the recent detection of gravitational waves, non-classical light sources are likely to become an essential element of future detectors engaged in gravitational wave astronomy and cosmology. Operating a squeezed light source under high vacuum has the advantages of reducing optical losses and phase noise compared to techniques where the squeezed light is introduced from outside the vacuum. This will ultimately provide enhanced sensitivity for modern interferometric gravitational wave detectors that will soon become limited by quantum noise across much of the detection bandwidth. Here we describe the optomechanical design choices and construction techniques of a near monolithic glass optical parametric oscillator that has been operated under a vacuum of 10(-6) mbar. The optical parametric oscillator described here has been shown to produce 8.6 dB of quadrature squeezed light in the audio frequency band down to 10 Hz. This performance has been maintained for periods of around an hour and the system has been under vacuum continuously for several months without a degradation of this performance.

Algebraic cancellation of polarisation noise in fibre interferometers

This experiment uses digital interferometry to reduce polarisation noise from a fiber interferometer to the level of double Rayleigh backscatter making precision fiber metrology systems robust for remote field applications. This is achieved with a measurement of the Jones matrix with interferometric sensitivity in real time, limited only by fibre length and processing bandwidth. This new approach leads to potentially new metrology applications and the ability to do ellipsometry without polarisation elements in the output field.