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Damping of LIGO Mirror
Astrophysics
Antler, Natania
I will describe work done with MIT Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) collaboration. I measure and test methods to damp the internal vibrational modes of a LIGO mirror. I built a small Michelson interferometer to measure the vibrational modes of the mirror, while it hangs as a pendulum in a large vacuum chamber. I installed an electrostatic drive to excite the oscillations of the mirror, and built an interferometer to detect these oscillations. I mounted a piezoelectric accelerometer, which acts as a spring and mass system, damping the mirror's vibration. The motivation for this project is that as LIGO is upgraded to Advanced LIGO, greater laser powers will be traveling through the mirrors. There are worries that as the power is increased the modes of the optical cavities in the arms of the interferometers will couple with the internal oscillation modes of the mirrors. If this happens, the increased radiation pressure could excite mechanical motion in the mirrors which would jeopardize the sensitive measurements.