@inproceedings{00a23b79790a4c7e8f80416f5223001a,
title = "Pushing cavities to the edge for future gravitational wave detectors",
abstract = "Near-unstable cavities have been proposed as an enabling technology for future gravitational wave detectors, as their compact structure and large beam spot can reduce the thermal noise floor of the interferometer. These cavities operate close to the edge of geometrical stability, and may be driven into instability via small cavity length perturbations or mirror surface distortions. They are at risk of suffering from problems such as high optical scattering loss and Gaussian mode degeneracy. The well-defined Gaussian beams can also be distorted through their interaction with the small imperfections of the mirror surfaces. These issues have an adverse impact on the detector sensitivity and controllability. In this article an experiment is designed and has been built to investigate the technical hurdles associated with marginally cavities. A near-unstable table-top cavity is built and accurate control achieved through length and alignment control systems. This experiment provides an account of the behavior of the near-unstable cavity. Additionally, the experiment provides an insight into how far cavity parameters can be pushed towards geometrical instability.",
keywords = "gravitational wave detection, laser interferometer, optical cavity, stable resonator",
author = "Haoyu Wang and Miguel Dovale-Alvarez and Christopher Collins and Brown, {Daniel David} and Mengyao Wang and Mow-Lowry, {Conor M.} and Sen Han and Andreas Freise",
year = "2018",
month = dec,
day = "12",
doi = "10.1117/12.2505394",
language = "English",
series = "SPIE - International Society for Optical Engineering. Proceedings",
publisher = "Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers",
editor = "McBride, {John W.} and Xuejun Zhang and Sen Han and JiuBin Tan",
booktitle = "Optical Precision Manufacturing, Testing, and Applications",
address = "United States",
note = "International Symposium on Optoelectronic Technology and Application 2018: Optical Precision Manufacturing, Testing, and Applications, OTA 2018 ; Conference date: 22-05-2018 Through 24-05-2018",
}