Sensitivity improvement of a laser interferometer limited by inelastic back-scattering, employing dual readout

Abstract

Inelastic back-scattering of stray light is a long-standing and fundamental problem in high-sensitivity interferometric measurements and a potential limitation for advanced gravitational-wave detectors. The emerging parasitic interferences cannot be distinguished from a scientific signal via conventional single readout. In this work, we propose the subtraction of inelastic back-scatter signals by employing dual homodyne detection on the output light, and demonstrate it for a table-top Michelson interferometer. The additional readout contains solely parasitic signals and is used to model the scatter source. Subtraction of the scatter signal reduces the noise spectral density and thus improves the measurement sensitivity. Our scheme is qualitatively different from the previously demonstrated vetoing of scatter signals and opens a new path for improving the sensitivity of future gravitational-wave detectors and other back-scatter limited devices.