Two-Carrier Scheme: Evading the 3 dB Quantum Penalty of Heterodyne Readout in Gravitational-Wave Detectors

Teng Zhang, Philip Jones, Jiří Smetana, Haixing Miao, Denis Martynov, Andreas Freise, and Stefan W. Ballmer

Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 221301 – Published 1 June 2021

Abstract

Precision measurements using a traditional heterodyne readout suffer a 3 dB quantum noise penalty compared with a homodyne readout. The extra noise is caused by the quantum fluctuations in the image vacuum. We propose a two-carrier gravitational-wave detector design that evades the 3 dB quantum penalty of the heterodyne readout. We further propose a new way of realizing frequency-dependent squeezing utilizing two-mode squeezing in our scheme. It naturally achieves more precise audio frequency signal measurements with radio frequency squeezing. In addition, the detector is compatible with other quantum nondemolition techniques.

Received 10 August 2020
Revised 6 October 2020
Accepted 5 May 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.221301

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Gravitational waves

Gravitational wave detectors

Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Authors & Affiliations

Teng Zhang ¹, Philip Jones ¹, Jiří Smetana¹, Haixing Miao ¹, Denis Martynov¹, Andreas Freise ^1,2,3, and Stefan W. Ballmer ⁴

¹School of Physics and Astronomy, and Institute of Gravitational Wave Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom
²Department of Physics and Astronomy, VU Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam, Netherlands
³Nikhef, Science Park 105, 1098 XG Amsterdam, Netherlands
⁴Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244, USA