A construction method of the quasi-monolithic compact interferometer based on UV-adhesive bonding

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Precision Measurement Engineering

Background:

• Quasi-monolithic interferometers are vital for high-precision measurements like gravitational wave detection.
• Current bonding methods (optical contact, silicate) have limitations.
• UV adhesives offer controlled curing and relaxed geometrical constraints.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a detailed construction method for quasi-monolithic compact interferometers using UV-adhesive bonding.
• To demonstrate the performance of interferometers built with this technique.

Main Methods:

• Developed quasi-monolithic compact interferometers utilizing UV-adhesive bonding.
• Constructed a Mach-Zehnder homodyne interferometer (100x100x20 mm³) for laser frequency noise monitoring.
• Built a compact heterodyne interferometer (20x30x20 mm³) as a displacement sensing head.

Main Results:

• The Mach-Zehnder interferometer achieved 2μrad/√Hz phase noise and 1kHz/√Hz laser frequency noise sensitivity at 1 Hz.
• The heterodyne sensing head demonstrated 1pm/√Hz translation sensitivity and 0.2nrad/√Hz tilt sensitivity above 0.4 Hz.

Conclusions:

• UV-adhesive bonding is a viable technique for constructing high-sensitivity quasi-monolithic compact interferometers.
• This method enables pico-meter and nano-radian scale precision measurements.