Characterization of Laser Systems at 1550 nm Wavelength for Future Gravitational Wave Detectors

TL;DR

This paper characterizes 1550 nm laser systems, including seed lasers and amplifiers, for future gravitational wave detectors, demonstrating a stabilized MOPA prototype suitable for high-precision metrology.

Contribution

It provides detailed performance characterization of commercial laser sources and develops a stabilized MOPA prototype tailored for next-generation gravitational wave detectors.

Findings

The stabilized MOPA shows low noise performance suitable for GWDs.

Characterization results support use of 1550 nm lasers in advanced gravitational wave detection.

The prototype meets key stability and noise requirements for future detectors.

Abstract

The continuous improvement of current gravitational wave detectors (GWDs) and the preparations for next generation GWDs place high demands on their stabilized laser sources. Some of the laser sources need to operate at laser wavelengths between 1.5 $\mu$m and 2.2 $\mu$m to support future detectors based on cooled silicon test masses for thermal noise reduction. We present detailed characterizations of different commercial low power seed laser sources and power amplifiers at the wavelength of 1550 nm with respect to performance parameters needed in GWDs. A combination with the most complete set of actuators was arranged as a master-oscillator power amplifier (MOPA), integrated into a stabilization environment and characterized. We present the results of this characterization that make this stabilized MOPA a highly relevant prototype for future GWDs as well as a low noise light source for other experiments in high precision metrology.