No Arabic abstract
Here we report on the realization of a Michelson-Sagnac interferometer whose purpose is the precise characterization of the motion of membranes showing significant light transmission. Our interferometer has a readout noise spectral density (imprecision) of 3E-16 m/sqrt(Hz) at frequencies around the fundamental resonance of a SiN_x membrane at about 100 kHz, without using optical cavities. The readout noise demonstrated is more than 16 dB below the peak value of the membranes standard quantum limit (SQL). This reduction is significantly higher than those of previous works with nano-wires [Teufel et al., Nature Nano. 4, 820 (2009); Anetsberger et al., Nature Phys. 5, 909 (2009)]. We discuss the meaning of the SQL for force measurements and its relation to the readout performance and conclude that neither our nor previous experiments achieved a total noise spectral density as low as the SQL.
We present a design for a new microresonator whose geometry is optimized to maximize sub-Standard Quantum Limit (SQL) performance. The new design is predicted to have thermal noise well below the SQL across a broad range of frequencies when operated at 10K. The performance of this designed microresonator will allow it to serve as a test-bed for quantum non-demolition measurements, and to open new regimes of precision measurement that are relevant for many practical sensing applications, including advanced gravitational wave detectors.
We calculate the quantum noise limited displacement sensitivity of a Michelson-Fabry-Perot (MFP) with detuned cavities, followed by phase-sensitive homodyne detection. We show that the standard quantum limit can be surpassed even with resonant cavities and without any signal-recycling mirror nor additional cavities. Indeed, thanks to the homodyne detection, the output field quadrature can be chosen in such a way to cancel the effect of input amplitude fluctuations, i.e., eliminating the force noise. With detuned cavities, the modified opto-mechanical susceptivity allows to reach unlimited sensitivity for large enough (yet finite) optical power. Our expressions include mirror losses and cavity delay effect, for a realistic comparison with experiments. Our study is particularly devoted to gravitational wave detectors and we consider both an interferometer with free-falling mirrors, and a MFP as readout for a massive detector. In the latter case, the sensitivity curve of the recently conceived DUAL detector, based on two acoustic modes, is obtained.
We investigate the prospect of enhancing the phase sensitivity of atom interferometers in the Mach-Zehnder configuration with squeezed light. Ultimately, this enhancement is achieved by transferring the quantum state of squeezed light to one or more of the atomic input beams, thereby allowing operation below the standard quantum limit. We analyze in detail three specific schemes that utilize (1) single-mode squeezed optical vacuum (i.e. low frequency squeezing), (2) two-mode squeezed optical vacuum (i.e. high frequency squeezing) transferred to both atomic inputs, and (3) two-mode squeezed optical vacuum transferred to a single atomic input. Crucially, our analysis considers incomplete quantum state transfer (QST) between the optical and atomic modes, and the effects of depleting the initially-prepared atomic source. Unsurprisingly, incomplete QST degrades the sensitivity in all three schemes. We show that by measuring the transmitted photons and using information recycling [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 053002 (2013)], the degrading effects of incomplete QST on the sensitivity can be substantially reduced. In particular, information recycling allows scheme (2) to operate at the Heisenberg limit irrespective of the QST efficiency, even when depletion is significant. Although we concentrate on Bose-condensed atomic systems, our scheme is equally applicable to ultracold thermal vapors.
We use hollow-core fibre to preserve the spectrum and temporal profile of picosecond laser pulses in CBD to suppress 2.6 dB of amplitude noise at MHz noise frequencies, to within 0.01 dB of the shot-noise limit. We provide an enhanced version of the CBD scheme that concatenates circuits to suppress over multiple frequencies and over broad frequency ranges --- we perform a first demonstration that reduces total excess amplitude noise, between 2 - 6 MHz, by 85%. These demonstrations enable passive, broad-band, all-guided fibre laser technology operating at the shot-noise limit.
The achievable acquisition rates of modern triggered nuclear physics experiments are heavily dependent on the readout software, in addition to the limits given by the utilized hardware. This paper presents an asynchronous readout scheme that significantly improves the livetime of an otherwise synchronous triggered VME-based data acquisition system. A detailed performance analysis of this and other readout schemes, in terms of the basic data transfer operations, is described. The performance of the newly developed scheme as well as synchronous schemes on two systems has been measured. The measurements show excellent agreement with the detailed description. For the second system, which previously used a synchronous readout, the deadtime ratio is at a 20 kHz trigger request frequency reduced by 30 % compared to the nearest contender, allowing 10 % more events to be recorded in the same time. The interaction between the network and readout tasks for single-core processors is also investigated. A livetime ratio loss of a few percent can be observed, depending on the size of the data chunks given to the operating system kernel for network transfer. With appropriately chosen chunk size, the effect can be mitigated.