Developing hardware for the gravitational wave detector
The Netherlands are in the race for providing hardware to LISA, the first space observatory for gravitational waves, scheduled for launch in 2034. NWO institutes SRON and Nikhef have signed a contract with Dutch companies Bright Photonics and Smart Photonics for the development of LISA’s laser detection system.
Astronomers use gravitational waves to observe events in the Universe that are invisible to our telescopes, such as collisions between stellar black holes or neutron stars. However, observatories on Earth are unable to detect gravitational waves with a length exceeding 10,000 kilometers, meaning that for example supermassive black holes remain invisible. Therefore ESA is developing the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), which will use its 2.5 million kilometer arms to detect much longer wavelengths. These arms consist of laser beams between three separate satellites and are able to detect minuscule changes in distance.
Two Dutch partnerships want to provide hardware for LISA. TNO will develop prototypes for aiming part of the optics: LISA’s glasses. This enables for example a precise alignment of the laser beams. Nikhef, Bright Photonics and Smart Photonics, under SRON supervision, start the development of a prototype of the so-called quadrant photodiodes: the laser detection system of LISA’s eyes. Both prototypes should be ready in about a year, as a first aptitude test.
The quadrant photodiodes register the infrared laser beams between LISA’s three satellites. The lasers have a power of 1 Watt, but diverge during their 2.5 million kilometer journey such that only 500 picoWatts remain upon arrival. In order to be able to notice this, the diodes must have extremely low noise levels. To increase the sensitivity of LISA’s eyes, indium gallium arsenide will be used.
LISA’s three satellites—2.5 million km apart—are constantly moving relative to each other within a margin of about ten thousand kilometers. Fortunately, this happens gradually enough such that it doesn’t affect the measurements. Still, it means the laser beams often need to be adjusted. TNO develops mechanisms for this that can aim with a precision of milli-arcseconds under extreme space conditions. This amounts to pointing out a dime on the Eiffel tower from a 400 kilometer distance.
More information at www.tno.com
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :