Related papers: Piezo-deformable Mirrors for Active Mode Matching …
We demonstrate the potential of new adaptive optical technology to expand the detection horizon of gravitational-wave observatories. Achieving greater quantum-noise-limited sensitivity to spacetime strain hinges on achieving higher…
Wavefront aberrations are identified as a major limitation in quantum sensors. They are today the main contribution in the uncertainty budget of best cold atom interferometers based on two-photon laser beam splitters, and constitute an…
Advanced gravitational wave interferometric detectors will operate at their design sensitivity with nearly 1MW of laser power stored in the arm cavities. Such large power may lead to the uncontrolled growth of acoustic modes in the test…
Precise calibration of kilometer-scale interferometric gravitational wave detectors is crucial for source localization and waveform reconstruction. A technique that uses the radiation pressure of a power-modulated auxiliary laser to induce…
Vacuum quantum fluctuations impose a fundamental limit on the sensitivity of gravitational-wave interferometers, which rank among the most sensitive precision measurement devices ever built. The injection of conventional squeezed vacuum…
The MagAO-X instrument is a new extreme adaptive optics system for high-contrast imaging at visible and near-infrared wavelengths on the Magellan Clay Telescope. A central component of this system is a 2040-actuator microelectromechanical…
We present a simple technique to produce active Q-switching in various types of fiber amplifiers by active integration of an electrostatic actuated deformable metallic micro-mirror. The optical MEMS (MOEMS) device acts as one of the laser…
(abridged) Extreme adaptive optics (XAO) encounters severe difficulties to cope with the high speed (>1kHz), high accuracy and high order requirements for future extremely large telescopes. An innovative high order adaptive optics system…
Deformable Mirrors (DMs) have wide applications ranging from astronomical imaging to laser communications and vision science. However, they often require bulky multi-channel cables for delivering high power to their drive actuators. A low…
Sidles and Sigg have shown that advanced LIGO interferometers will encounter a serious tilt instability, in which symmetric tilts of the mirrors of an arm cavity cause the cavity's light beam to slide sideways, so its radiation pressure…
We present an adaptive lens which tunes its focal length with a glass membrane that is deformed by an integrated piezo bending actuator. A particular challenge in the fabrication of this type of actuator is the need to contact the…
Recently, Adaptive Secondary Mirrors showed excellent on-sky results in the Near Infrared wavelengths. They currently provide 30mm inter-actuator spacing and about 1 kHz bandwidth. Pushing these devices to be operated at visible wavelengths…
In this paper we present a Deformable Mirror (DM) based on the continuous voltage distribution over a resistive layer. This DM can correct the low order aberrations (defocus, astigmatism, coma and spherical aberration) using three…
Optics for future X-ray telescopes will be characterized by very large aperture and focal length, and will be made of lightweight materials like glass or plastic in order to keep the total mass within acceptable limits. Optics based on thin…
In astronomy and microscopy, distortions in the wavefront affect the dynamic range of a high contrast imaging system. These aberrations are either imposed by a turbulent medium such as the atmosphere, by static or thermal aberrations in the…
Interferometric gravitational wave detectors operate with high optical power in their arms in order to achieve high shot-noise limited strain sensitivity. A significant limitation to increasing the optical power is the phenomenon of…
Thermal noise is expected to be the dominant source of noise in the most sensitive frequency band of second generation ground based gravitational wave detectors. Reshaping the beam to a flatter wider profile which probes more of the mirror…
The Advanced LIGO gravitational wave detectors are nearing their design sensitivity and should begin taking meaningful astrophysical data in the fall of 2015. These resonant optical interferometers will have unprecedented sensitivity to the…
Advanced LIGO's present baseline design uses arm cavities with Gaussian light beams supported by spherical mirrors. Because Gaussian beams have large intensity gradients in regions of high intensity, they average poorly over fluctuating…
Achieving the quantum noise targets of third-generation detectors will require 10 dB of squeezed-light enhancement as well as megawatt laser power in the interferometer arms - both of which require unprecedented control of the internal…