Rotational sensitivity of the "G-Pisa" gyrolaser

TL;DR

This paper explores the rotational sensitivity of a compact He-Ne ring laser gyroscope, demonstrating its potential for gravitational wave detector mirror suspension improvements with low-frequency sensitivity below 1 Hz.

Contribution

It presents a high-sensitivity, small-area laser gyroscope with stable operation and analyzes the effects of hydrogen contamination on its performance.

Findings

Achieved low-frequency sensitivity below 1 Hz at 10^{-8} rad/s/√Hz

Maintained stable single and multimode operation with >50% fringe contrast

Demonstrated feasibility for gravitational wave detector applications

Abstract

G-Pisa is an experiment investigating the possibility to operate a high sensitivity laser gyroscope with area less than $1 \rm m^2$ for improving the performances of the mirrors suspensions of the gravitational wave antenna Virgo. The experimental set-up consists in a He-Ne ring laser with a 4 mirrors square cavity. The laser is pumped by an RF discharge where the RF oscillator includes the laser plasma in order to reach a better stability. The contrast of the Sagnac fringes is typically above 50% and a stable regime has been reached with the laser operating both single mode or multimode. The effect of hydrogen contamination on the laser was also checked. A low-frequency sensitivity, below $1 \rm Hz$, in the range of $10^{-8} \rm {(rad / s)/ \sqrt{Hz}}$ has been measured.