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Updated: Jun 8, 2026

Implementation of a Reference Interferometer for Nanodetection
Published on: April 26, 2014
Measurement and real-time cancellation of vibration-induced phase noise in a cavity-stabilized laser
Michael J Thorpe1, David R Leibrandt, Tara M Fortier
1National Institute of Standards and Technology, 325 Broadway St., Boulder, CO 80305, USA. mthorpe@nist.boulder.gov
Abstract:
We demonstrate a method to measure and actively reduce the coupling of vibrations to the phase noise of a cavity-stabilized laser. This method uses the vibration noise of the laboratory environment rather than active drive to perturb the optical cavity. The laser phase noise is measured via a beat note with a second unperturbed ultra-stable laser while the vibrations are measured by accelerometers positioned around the cavity. A Wiener filter algorithm extracts the frequency and direction dependence of the cavity response function. Once the cavity response function is known, real-time noise cancellation can be implemented by use of the accelerometer measurements to predict and then cancel the laser phase fluctuations. We present real-time noise cancellation that results in a 25 dB reduction of the laser phase noise power spectral density.

