Dual balanced readout for scattered light noise mitigation in Michelson interferometers

André Lohde; Daniel Voigt; Oliver Gerberding

doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.111.022004

Dual balanced readout for scattered light noise mitigation in Michelson interferometers

André Lohde^*
, Daniel Voigt^*
, Oliver Gerberding^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Ground-based gravitational wave detectors use laser interferometry to detect the minuscule distance change between test masses caused by gravitational waves. Stray light that scatters back into the interferometer causes transient signals that can cover the same frequency range as a potential gravitational wave signal. This scattered light noise is a potentially limiting factor in current and future detectors thus making it relevant to find new ways to mitigate it. Here, we demonstrate experimentally a technique for the subtraction of scattered light noise from the displacement readout of a Michelson interferometer. It is based on using a balanced homodyne detector at both the symmetric and the antisymmetric port. While we have been able to demonstrate a noise reduction of 13.2 dB, the readout scheme seems to be only limited by the associated noise couplings, i.e., shot noise and the coupling of laser noise. We also discuss challenges for using the dual balanced homodyne detection scheme in more complex interferometer topologies, which could lead to improvements in scattered light noise mitigation of gravitational wave detectors.

Original language	English
Article number	022004
Pages (from-to)	1-8
Number of pages	8
Journal	Physical Review D
Volume	111
Issue number	2
Early online date	22 Jan 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.022004
Publication status	Published - 1 Feb 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Funding

This research was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy—EXC 2121 “Quantum Universe”—390833306. Additionally, the authors acknowledge financial support from the Open Access Publication Fund of Universität Hamburg. The authors thank Leonie Eggers for the assistance during her time in the group. Further, the authors acknowledge valuable input from Michael Was and Benno Willke via the LIGO P&P review. This research was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy-EXC 2121 Quantum Universe - 390833306. Additionally, the authors acknowledge financial support from the Open Access Publication Fund of Universitet Hamburg. The authors thank Leonie Eggers for the assistance during her time in the group. Further, the authors acknowledge valuable input from Michael Was and Benno Willke via the LIGO P&P review.

Funders	Funder number
Universität Hamburg
Michael Was and Benno Willke
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft	390833306

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title = "Dual balanced readout for scattered light noise mitigation in Michelson interferometers",

abstract = "Ground-based gravitational wave detectors use laser interferometry to detect the minuscule distance change between test masses caused by gravitational waves. Stray light that scatters back into the interferometer causes transient signals that can cover the same frequency range as a potential gravitational wave signal. This scattered light noise is a potentially limiting factor in current and future detectors thus making it relevant to find new ways to mitigate it. Here, we demonstrate experimentally a technique for the subtraction of scattered light noise from the displacement readout of a Michelson interferometer. It is based on using a balanced homodyne detector at both the symmetric and the antisymmetric port. While we have been able to demonstrate a noise reduction of 13.2 dB, the readout scheme seems to be only limited by the associated noise couplings, i.e., shot noise and the coupling of laser noise. We also discuss challenges for using the dual balanced homodyne detection scheme in more complex interferometer topologies, which could lead to improvements in scattered light noise mitigation of gravitational wave detectors.",

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N2 - Ground-based gravitational wave detectors use laser interferometry to detect the minuscule distance change between test masses caused by gravitational waves. Stray light that scatters back into the interferometer causes transient signals that can cover the same frequency range as a potential gravitational wave signal. This scattered light noise is a potentially limiting factor in current and future detectors thus making it relevant to find new ways to mitigate it. Here, we demonstrate experimentally a technique for the subtraction of scattered light noise from the displacement readout of a Michelson interferometer. It is based on using a balanced homodyne detector at both the symmetric and the antisymmetric port. While we have been able to demonstrate a noise reduction of 13.2 dB, the readout scheme seems to be only limited by the associated noise couplings, i.e., shot noise and the coupling of laser noise. We also discuss challenges for using the dual balanced homodyne detection scheme in more complex interferometer topologies, which could lead to improvements in scattered light noise mitigation of gravitational wave detectors.

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Dual balanced readout for scattered light noise mitigation in Michelson interferometers

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