Related papers: Thermal Noise Measurement Below the Standard Quant…
We introduce a method, which we here name ``active pre-cooling'' (APC), for removing, just prior to performing a measurement, a large fraction of the deleterious thermal photons that would otherwise occupy the electromagnetic modes of a…
Future gravitational wave detectors (GWDs) such as Advanced LIGO upgrades and the Einstein Telescope are planned to operate at cryogenic temperatures using crystalline silicon (cSi) test-mass mirrors at an operation wavelength of 1550 nm.…
We present an interferometric sensor for investigating macroscopic quantum mechanics on a table-top scale. The sensor consists of pair of suspended optical cavities with a finesse in excess of 100,000 comprising 10 g fused-silica mirrors.…
We achieved a 0.5 Hz optical beat note line width with ~ 0.1 Hz/s frequency drift at 972 nm between two external cavity diode lasers independently stabilized to two vertically mounted Fabry-Perot (FP) reference cavities. Vertical FP…
We propose granularity noise thermometry (GNT), a fluctuation-based optical thermometry scheme that exploits the intrinsic fluctuations of susceptibility arising from atomic discreteness. The power spectral density of transmitted light…
It is often the case that the environment of a quantum system may be described as a bath of oscillators with Ohmic density of states. In turn, the precise characterization of these classes of environments is a crucial tool to engineer…
The dominant hurdle to the operation of optomechanical systems in the quantum regime is the coupling of the vibrating element to a thermal reservoir via mechanical supports. Here we propose a scheme that uses an optical spring to replace…
We have developed a scheme for reducing LIGO suspension thermal noise close to violin-mode resonances. The idea is to monitor directly the thermally-induced motion of a small portion of (a ``point'' on) each suspension fiber, thereby…
Thermal lensing in resonant optical interferometers such as those used for gravitational wave detection is a concern due to the negative impact on control signals and instrument sensitivity. In this paper we describe a method for monitoring…
Liquid droplet whispering-gallery-mode microresonators open a new research frontier for optomechanics and photonic devices. At visible wavelengths, where most liquids are transparent, a major contribution to a droplet optical quality factor…
We describe the construction and operation of a two-channel noise detection system for measuring power and cross spectral densities of current fluctuations near 2 MHz in electronic devices at low temperatures. The system employs cryogenic…
An analysis is given of thermoelastic noise (thermal noise due to thermoelastic dissipation) in finite sized test masses of laser interferometer gravitational-wave detectors. Finite-size effects increase the thermoelastic noise by a modest…
The noise power spectral density of a thermal current between two macroscopic dielectric bodies held at different temperatures and connected only at a quantum point contact is calculated. Assuming the thermal energy is carried only by…
Thermal fluctuations of different origin in the substrate and in the coating of optical mirrors produce phase noise in the reflected wave. This noise determines the ultimate stabilization capability of high-Q cavities used as a reference…
The motional sideband asymmetry of a mechanical oscillator interacting with a laser field can be observed when approaching the quantum ground state, where the zero-point energy of the mechanical oscillator becomes a sizable contribution to…
We propose a detuned Fabry-Perot cavity, pumped through both the mirrors, as \textit{a toy model} of the gravitational-wave (GW) detector partially free from displacement noise of the test masses. It is demonstrated that the noise of cavity…
We report observations of the Schawlow-Townes noise limit in a cryogenic sapphire secondary frequency standard. The effect causes a fundamental limit to the frequency stability, and was measured through the novel excitation of a bimodal…
The short-term sensitivity of a kilometer-long fiber-optic gyroscope is limited mainly by thermal phase noise and relative intensity noise. Increasing the phase modulation frequency decreases the thermal phase noise but not the relative…
We present the reduction and manipulation of quantum radiation pressure noise (QRPN) in an optomechanical cavity with the injection of squeezed light. The optomechanical system consists of a high-reflectivity single-crystal microresonator…
A common use for atomic force microscopy is to quantify local forces through tip-sample interactions between the probe tip and a sample surface. The accuracy of these measurements depends on the accuracy to which the cantilever spring…