An elegant Breadboard of the optical bench for eLISA/NGO

Abstract

Abstract-The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, as well as its reformulated European-only evolution, the New GravitationalWave Observatory, both employ heterodyne laser interferometry on million kilometer scale arm lengths in a triangular spacecraft formation, to observe gravitational waves at frequencies between 3 × 10 −5 Hz and 1 Hz. The Optical Bench as central payload element realizes both the inter-spacecraft as well as local laser metrology with respect to inertial proof masses, and provides further functions, such as point-ahead accommodation, acquisition sensing, transmit beam conditioning, optical power monitoring, and laser redundancy switching.These functions have been combined in a detailed design of an Optical Bench Elegant Breadboard, which is currently under assembly and integration. We present an overview of the realization and current performances of the Optical Bench subsystems, which employ ultraprecise piezo mechanism, ultrastable assembly techniques, and shot noise limited RF detection to achieve translation and tilt metrology at Picometer and Nanoradian noise levels.

Ultra stable iso-static bonded optical mount design for harsh environments

“…At the moment the mechanism is ready to be integrated on the LISA Optical Bench EBB. For details see [10] IV. CONCLUSIONS TNO has built up a lot of experience with the bonded iso static mounting concept by implementing it in several different applications .…”

Extremely stable piezo mechanisms for the new gravitational wave observatory

“…Two mechanisms have been build and tested, ready to soon be integrated on the LISA/NGO optical bench EBB [3,4] …”