Abstract:We have developed a method to equip homodyne interferometers with the capability to operate with constant high sensitivity over many fringes for continuous real-time tracking. The method can be considered as an extension of the "J 1 ...J 4 " methods, and its enhancement to deliver very sensitive angular measurements through Differential Wavefront Sensing is straightforward. Beam generation requires a sinusoidal phase modulation of several radians in one interferometer arm. On a stable optical bench, we have demonstrated a long-term sensitivity over thousands of seconds of 0.1 mrad/ √ Hz that correspond to 20 pm/ √ Hz in length, and 10 nrad/ √ Hz in angle at millihertz frequencies.

Inter satellite laser interferometry is a central component of future space-borne gravity instruments like LISA, eLISA, NGO and future geodesy missions. The inherently small laser wavelength allows to measure distance variations with extremely high precision by interfering a reference beam with a measurement beam. The readout of such interferometers is often based on tracking phasemeters, able to measure the phase of an incoming beatnote with high precision over a wide range of frequencies. The implementation of such phasemeters is based on all digital phase-locked loops, hosted in FPGAs. Here we present a precise model of an all digital phase locked loop that allows to design such a readout algorithm and we support our analysis by numerical performance measurements and experiments with analog signals.

Precision phase readout of optical beat note signals is one of the core techniques required for intersatellite laser interferometry. Future space based gravitational wave detectors like eLISA require such a readout over a wide range of MHz frequencies, due to orbit induced Doppler shifts, with a precision in the order of μrad/√Hz at frequencies between 0.1 mHz and 1 Hz. In this paper, we present phase readout systems, so-called phasemeters, that are able to achieve such precisions and we discuss various means that have been employed to reduce noise in the analogue circuit domain and during digitisation. We also discuss the influence of some non-linear noise sources in the analogue domain of such phasemeters. And finally, we present the performance that was achieved during testing of the elegant breadboard model of the LISA phasemeter, which was developed in the scope of a European Space Agency technology development activity.