Open AccessRevealing optical loss from modal frequency degeneracy in a long optical cavity
Author(s) -
Qi Fang,
C. D. Blair,
C. Zhao,
D. G. Blair
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.430276
Subject(s) - finesse , optics , optical cavity , physics , fabry–pérot interferometer , detector , degeneracy (biology) , interferometry , laser , bioinformatics , biology
Optical loss plays a significant role in optical experiments involving optical cavities such as recycling cavities and filter cavities in laser interferometer gravitational-wave detectors. For those cavities, modal frequency degeneracy, where the fundamental and a higher order mode resonate inside the cavity simultaneously, is a potential mechanism which may bring extra optical loss to the cavity thus degrade detection sensitivity. In this paper, we report observation of modal frequency degeneracy in a large-scale suspended Fabry-Pérot cavity. The cavity g-factor is tuned by a CO 2 laser heating one test mass, and the cavity finesse is obtained from a ring-down measurement of the transmitted light. We demonstrate that the modal frequency degeneracy can cause a reduction of the cavity finesse by up to ∼30%, corresponding to a ∼2-fold increase in total optical loss. To minimize optical loss in gravitational-wave detectors, the effect of modal frequency degeneracy needs to be taken into account in the design and operation of the detector.