Method to reduce excess noise of a detuned cavity for application in KAGRA

Abstract

Ground-based gravitational-wave detectors are based on high precision laser interferometry. One promising technique to improve the detector's sensitivity is the detuning of an optical cavity, which enhances the signal at around certain frequencies for target astronomical sources. The detuning, however, involves technical noise due to an asymmetry of the control sidebands, which includes photo-detector noise and oscillator-phase noise. Here, we introduce a solution to reduce the two kinds of excess noise using an amplitude-modulation sideband that compensates the asymmetry. The solution is planned to be implemented in the Japanese second-generation gravitational-wave detector KAGRA.