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First Demonstration of 6 dB Quantum Noise Reduction in a Kilometer Scale Gravitational Wave Observatory

James Lough1,*, Emil Schreiber1, Fabio Bergamin1, Hartmut Grote2, Moritz Mehmet1, Henning Vahlbruch1, Christoph Affeldt1, Marc Brinkmann1, Aparna Bisht1 et al.

Volker Kringel1, Harald Lück1, Nikhil Mukund1, Severin Nadji1, Borja Sorazu3, Kenneth Strain3, Michael Weinert1, and Karsten Danzmann1

  • 1Institut für Gravitationsphysik, Leibniz Universität Hannover and Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut), Callinstraße 38, 30167 Hannover, Germany
  • 2School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, The Parade, CF24 3AA, United Kingdom
  • 3SUPA, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom

  • *james.lough@aei.mpg.de
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 041102 – Published 26 January, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.041102

Abstract

Photon shot noise, arising from the quantum-mechanical nature of the light, currently limits the sensitivity of all the gravitational wave observatories at frequencies above one kilohertz. We report a successful application of squeezed vacuum states of light at the GEO 600 observatory and demonstrate for the first time a reduction of quantum noise up to 6.03±0.02  dB in a kilometer scale interferometer. This is equivalent at high frequencies to increasing the laser power circulating in the interferometer by a factor of 4. Achieving this milestone, a key goal for the upgrades of the advanced detectors required a better understanding of the noise sources and losses and implementation of robust control schemes to mitigate their contributions. In particular, we address the optical losses from beam propagation, phase noise from the squeezing ellipse, and backscattered light from the squeezed light source. The expertise gained from this work carried out at GEO 600 provides insight toward the implementation of 10 dB of squeezing envisioned for third-generation gravitational wave detectors.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 041102– Published 26 January, 2021
  • Received 22 June 2020
  • Accepted 4 January 2021
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by the Max Planck Society.

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