Force-insensitive optical cavity

TL;DR

This paper presents a rigid optical cavity design that is highly insensitive to inertial forces and external accelerations, achieving the lowest passive sensitivity reported for such devices.

Contribution

The authors introduce a cubic, tetrahedral-supported optical cavity that significantly reduces inertial force sensitivity compared to previous designs.

Findings

Maximum acceleration sensitivity of 2.5×10^-11/g

Design achieves lowest passive inertial sensitivity for optical cavities

Supports are symmetrically arranged to minimize force impact

Abstract

We describe a rigidly-mounted optical cavity which is insensitive to inertial forces acting in any direction and to the compressive force used to constrain it. The design is based on a cubic geometry with four supports placed symmetrically about the optical axis in a tetrahedral configuration. To measure the inertial force sensitivity, a laser is locked to the cavity while it is inverted about three orthogonal axes. The maximum acceleration sensitivity is 2.5\times10^-11/g (where g=9.81 ms^-2), the lowest passive sensitivity to be reported for an optical cavity.