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The Generation of Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Optical Beams for High-precision Interferometry

The Generation of Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Optical Beams for High-precision Interferometry

Published on: August 12, 2013

Balancing interferometers with slow-light elements.

Alireza Marandi¹, Brian T Lantz, Robert L Byer

¹Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-4088, USA. marandi@stanford.edu

|March 16, 2011

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Interferometers with unbalanced arms can be balanced using optical elements that provide group delays. This balancing makes interferometers insensitive to source frequency noise, demonstrated with a ring resonator in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer.

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Area of Science:

Optics and Photonics
Interferometry
Optical Sensing

Background:

Interferometers are sensitive to source frequency noise, especially with unbalanced arm lengths.
Achieving balance in interferometers is crucial for stable and precise measurements.
Existing methods for balancing interferometers can be complex or limited.

Purpose of the Study:

To demonstrate a method for balancing interferometers with unbalanced arm lengths using optical elements.
To show that balanced interferometers can achieve insensitivity to source frequency noise.
To experimentally validate the use of slow-light elements for compensating arm-length mismatch.

Main Methods:

Utilizing optical elements with specific group delays to compensate for arm-length differences.
Employing a ring resonator as a slow-light element to introduce tunable group delay.
Implementing a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with a significant arm-length mismatch (9.4 m).

Main Results:

Successfully balanced an interferometer with a 9.4 m arm-length mismatch.
The ring resonator provided the necessary group delay for compensation.
Demonstrated insensitivity to source frequency noise in the balanced configuration.

Conclusions:

Optical elements with appropriate group delays can effectively balance interferometers.
Ring resonators are suitable slow-light elements for compensating arm-length mismatches.
This technique offers a pathway to robust and noise-insensitive interferometric systems.