title: Optomechanical design and construction of a vacuum-compatible optical parametric oscillator for generation of squeezed light.
abstract: With the recent detection of gravitational waves, non-classical light sources are likely to become an essential element of future detectors engaged in gravitational wave astronomy and cosmology. Operating a squeezed light source under high vacuum has the advantages of reducing optical losses and phase noise compared to techniques where the squeezed light is introduced from outside the vacuum. This will ultimately provide enhanced sensitivity for modern interferometric gravitational wave detectors that will soon become limited by quantum noise across much of the detection bandwidth. Here we describe the optomechanical design choices and construction techniques of a near monolithic glass optical parametric oscillator that has been operated under a vacuum of 10(-6) mbar. The optical parametric oscillator described here has been shown to produce 8.6 dB of quadrature squeezed light in the audio frequency band down to 10 Hz. This performance has been maintained for periods of around an hour and the system has been under vacuum continuously for several months without a degradation of this performance.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Gravitational Physics, Department of Quantum Science, Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Wade
authors.affiliation: Centre for Gravitational Physics, Department of Quantum Science, Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Mansell
authors.affiliation: Centre for Gravitational Physics, Department of Quantum Science, Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: T G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: McRae
authors.affiliation: Laboratorie Kastler Brosssel, UPMC-Sorbonne Universites, CNRS, ENS-PSL Research University, College de France, Paris, France.
authors.forename: S S Y
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Chua
authors.affiliation: Centre for Gravitational Physics, Department of Quantum Science, Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Yap
authors.affiliation: Centre for Gravitational Physics, Department of Quantum Science, Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.affiliation: Centre for Gravitational Physics, Department of Quantum Science, Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: B J J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Slagmolen
authors.affiliation: Centre for Gravitational Physics, Department of Quantum Science, Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Shaddock
authors.affiliation: Centre for Gravitational Physics, Department of Quantum Science, Research School of Physics and Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: McClelland