Vopo supension design: A single stage suspension for the squeezer instrument

Abstract

This project has been performed at the MIT LIGO laboratory. This Laboratory is one of the main contributors to the LSC (LIGO Scientific Collaboration) group. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational‐Wave Observatory (LIGO) project is designed to directly detect gravitational waves of cosmic origin predicted by Einstein’s General Relativity. To do so, LIGO has built two identical 4km arm interferometers within the United States ‐one in Hanford, WA and the other in Livingston, LA. Using the same principle applied by Michelson’s interferometer with a Fabry‐Perot cavity, as described in (Saulson, 1998), these 4km arm interferometers have the capability of detecting almost imperceptible strains (up to 10‐24 m/in the so called “test masses”, the 40kg mirrors located at the extremes of the arms, Figure 1. This high sensitivity makes LIGO to be one the most sensitive metrology experiment in the world.