5.3 Fluctuations in Radiation Pressure5 Laser Interferometric Techniques for 5.1 Power Recycling

5.2 Signal Recycling 

To enhance further the sensitivity of an interferometric detector and to allow some narrowing of the detection bandwidth, which may be valuable in searches for continuous wave sources of gravitational radiation, another technique known as signal recycling can be implemented [68, 96, 46]. This relies on the fact that sidebands created on the light by gravitational wave signals interacting with the arms do not interfere destructively and so do appear at the output of the interferometer. If a mirror of suitably chosen reflectivity is put at the output of the system as shown in Fig.  7, then the sidebands can be recycled back into the interferometer where they resonate, and hence the signal size over a given bandwidth (set by the mirror reflectivity) is enhanced.

  

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Figure 7: The implementation of power and signal recycling on the two interferometers shown in the previous figure, Fig.  6 .

The center of this frequency band is set by the precise length of the cavity formed by the signal recycling mirror and the cavities in the interferometer arms. Thus control of the precise position of the signal recycling mirror allows tuning of the frequency at which the performance is peaked.

Often signal recycling will be used to provide a narrow bandwidth to search for continuous wave sources as mentioned above, however it may also be used with a relatively broad bandwidth, centered away from zero frequency, and this application is useful for matching the frequency response of the detector to expected spectral densities of certain broadband or ``chirping'' signals.



5.3 Fluctuations in Radiation Pressure5 Laser Interferometric Techniques for 5.1 Power Recycling

image Gravitational Wave Detection by Interferometry (Ground and Space)
Sheila Rowan and Jim Hough
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-2000-3
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