A Quantum-Enhanced Prototype Gravitational-Wave Detector

Abstract

The quantum nature of the electromagnetic field imposes a fundamental limit on the sensitivity of optical precision measurements such as spectroscopy, microscopy, and interferometry. The so-called quantum limit is set by the zero-point fluctuations of the electromagnetic field, which constrain the precision with which optical signals can be measured. In the world of precision measurement, laser-interferometric gravitational wave (GW) detectors are the most sensitive position meters ever operated, capable of measuring distance changes on the order of 10^-18 m RMS over kilometer separations caused by GWs from astronomical sources. The sensitivity of currently operational and future GW detectors is limited by quantum optical noise. Here we demonstrate a 44% improvement in displacement sensitivity of a prototype GW detector with suspended quasi-free mirrors at frequencies where the sensitivity is shot-noise-limited, by injection of a squeezed state of light. This demonstration is a critical step toward implementation of squeezing-enhancement in large-scale GW detectors.

7 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in Nature Physics

References in corpus (4)

• LIGO: The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
• Demonstration of a squeezed light enhanced power- and signal-recycled Michelson interferometer
• Quantum Noise Locking
• Generation of a stable low-frequency squeezed vacuum field with periodically-poled KTiOPO${}_4$ at 1064 nm

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Squeezing and entanglement in a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Phase estimation for thermal Gaussian states
• Quantum theory of optical temporal phase and instantaneous frequency
• Decoherence-enhanced measurements
• Dispersive CQED interactions between matter qubits and bright squeezed light
• Quantum radiations from exciton condensate in Electron-Hole Bilayer Systems