Interferometric testbed for nanometer level stabilization of environmental motion over long time scales.
We developed an interferometric testbed to stabilize environmental motions over time scales of several hours and a length scale of 1 m. Typically, thermal and seismic motions on the ground are larger than 1 microm over these scales, affecting the precision of more sensitive measurements. To suppress such motions, we built an active stabilization system composed of interferometric sensors, a hexapod actuator, and a frequency-stabilized laser. With this stabilized testbed, environmental motions were suppressed down to the nanometer level. This system will allow us to perform sensitive measurements, such as ground testing of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, in the presence of environmental noise.
Numata
Kenji
K
Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. Kenji.Numata@nasa.gov
Camp
Jordan
J