High-vacuum-compatible high-power Faraday isolators for gravitational-wave interferometers

• DOI: 10.1364/josab.29.001784
• Publication Date: 2012-06-27T14:48:53Z
• Authors: Oleg V. Palashov; Dmitry S. Zheleznov; Alexander V. Voit...; Victor V. Zelenog...; Eugene E. Kamenetsky; Efim A. Khazanov; Rodica M. Martin; Katherine L. Dooley; Luke Williams; Antonio Lucianetti; Volker Quetschke; Guido Mueller; David H. Reitze; David B. Tanner; Eric Genin; Benjamin Canuel; Julien Marque
• Keywords: Faraday cage; Optical Isolator

Faraday isolators play a key role in the operation of large-scale gravitational-wave detectors. Second-generation interferometers such as Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo will use high-average-power cw lasers (up to 200 W) requiring specially designed that are immune effects resulting from laser beam absorption–degraded isolation ratio, thermal lensing, thermally induced steering. In this paper, we present comprehensive study specifically for high-performance high-power interferometers.