The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and its metrology chain have to fulfill stringent performance requirements to enable the space-based detection of gravitational waves. This implies the necessity of performance verification methods. In particular, the extraction of the interferometric phase, implemented by a phasemeter, needs to be probed for linearity and phase noise contributions. This Letter reports on a hexagonal quasimonolithic optical bench implementing a three-signal test for this purpose. Its characterization as sufficiently stable down to picometer levels is presented as well as its usage for a benchmark phasemeter performance measurement under LISA conditions. These results make it a candidate for the core of a LISA metrology verification facility.
@article{arxiv.1810.00728,
title = {Picometer-stable hexagonal optical bench to verify LISA phase extraction linearity and precision},
author = {Thomas S. Schwarze and Germán Fernández Barranco and Daniel Penkert and Marina Kaufer and Oliver Gerberding and Gerhard Heinzel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.00728},
year = {2019}
}