Prototype of an ultra-stable optic cavity for space applications

Bérengère Argence (1) , Eddie Prevost (2) , Thomas Lévèque (3) , Roland Le Goff (2) , Pierre Lemonde (1) , Sebastien Bize (1) , Giorgio Santarelli (4, 1)

1 SYRTE - Systèmes de Référence Temps Espace
2 SODERN
3 CNES - Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse]
4 lp2n-06,lp2n-14

We report the main features and performances of a prototype of an ultra-stable cavity designed and realized by industry for space applications with the aim of space missions. The cavity is a 100 mm long cylinder rigidly held at its midplane by a engineered mechanical interface providing an efficient decoupling from thermal and vibration perturbations. Intensive finite element modeling was performed in order to optimize thermal and vibration sensitivities while getting a high fundamental resonance frequency. The system was designed to be transportable, acceleration tolerant (up to several g) and temperature range compliant [−33◦C;73◦C]. Thermal isolation is ensured by gold coated Aluminum shields inside a stainless steel enclosure for vacuum. The axial vibration sensitivity was evaluated at(4±0.5)×10 −11/(m.s−2), while the transverse one is <1×10−11/(m.s−2). The fractional frequency instability is 1×10−15 from 0.1 to a few seconds and reaches 5−6×10−16at 1s.

Mots clés: Metrological instrumentation; Space instrumentation; Fabry-Perot; Laser stabilization; Optical resonators

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]; Physique [physics]; Astrophysique [astro-ph]

Bérengère Argence, Eddie Prevost, Thomas Lévèque, Roland Le Goff, Pierre Lemonde, et al.. Prototype of an ultra-stable optic cavity for space applications. Optics Express, 2012, 20 (23), pp.25409-25420. ⟨10.1364/OE.20.025409⟩. ⟨hal-00813602⟩