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Updated: Jul 7, 2026

The Generation of Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Optical Beams for High-precision Interferometry
Published on: August 12, 2013
Entanglement of macroscopic test masses and the standard quantum limit in laser interferometry
Helge Müller-Ebhardt1, Henning Rehbein, Roman Schnabel
1Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut), Institut für Gravitationsphysik, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Callinstr. 38, 30167 Hannover, Germany.
Abstract:
We show that the generation of entanglement of two heavily macroscopic mirrors is feasible with state of the art techniques of high-precision laser interferometry. The basis of such a demonstration would be a Michelson interferometer with suspended mirrors and simultaneous homodyne detections at both interferometer output ports. We present the connection between the generation of entanglement and the standard quantum limit (SQL) for a free mass. The SQL is a well-known reference limit in operating interferometers for gravitational-wave detection and provides a measure of when macroscopic entanglement can be observed in the presence of realistic decoherence processes.
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