Speaker
Description
Faraday isolators are needed in various areas of the gravitational-wave detectors, either requiring very low-loss (in the squeezer area), or high-power operation (in the input area), all while maintaining excellent optical isolation and low-noise performance.
Ultra-low-loss Faraday isolators have been built for the A+ output and squeezer isolators, and have shown excellent performance during the current commissioning runs. At longer wavelengths however, although commercial isolators are available, low-loss designs are not as mature, and fewer options for high-precision optics and lasers for testing are accessible, and more work is needed to develop suitable isolators.
We would like to present the results of our investigations characterizing a commercially available Faraday isolator at 2052 nm wavelength, status and plans for building a pathfinder for the Voyager, and to invite the discussion for options to consider while moving forward. We will also review the current status of available materials for these isolators in a range of wavelengths 1-2 um, of interest for future gravitational-wave detectors.
