Optical trapping and cooling of high-aspect-ratio hexagonal prisms for kHz gravitational wave detection

ORAL

Abstract

We present an update on the optical trapping and cooling of high-aspect-ratio Yb:beta-NaYF hexagonal prisms in vacuum for the Levitated Sensor Detector (LSD) project, which detects high-frequency (10-300 kHz) gravitational waves. By making use of this high mass, low photon-recoil-heating geometry in the LSD, we could achieve its designed sensitivity for probing sources like superradiance from axion clouds around spinning black holes and primordial black hole mergers. We discuss the recent progress of cooling the motional temperature of hexagons using parametric feedback cooling, as well as the LSD 1-meter prototype that is in construction.

*This work was partially supported by the W.M. Keck foundation, the office of Naval Research grant no.417315//N00014-18-1-2370, the National Science Foundation, and the Heising-Simons Foundation.

Publication: G. Winstone, Z. Wang, S. Klomp, R. G. Felsted, A. Laeuger, C. Gupta, D. Grass, N. Aggarwal, J. Sprague, P. J. Pauzauskie, S. L. Larson, V. Kalogera, A. A. Geraci (LSD Collaboration), Optical Trapping of High-Aspect-Ratio NaYF Hexagonal Prisms for kHz-MHz Gravita- tional Wave Detectors, Phys. Rev. Lett. 129 (2022) 053604.

Presenters

  • Zhiyuan Wang

    • Northwestern University

Authors

  • Zhiyuan Wang

    • Northwestern University
  • Shelby Klomp

    • Northwestern University
  • George P Winstone

    • Northwestern University
  • Lars Forberger

    • University of Washington
  • Jacob Sprague

    • Northwestern University
  • Seca Widyatmodjo

    • Northwestern University
  • Andrew S Laeugar

    • California Institute of Technology
    • Northwestern University
  • Robert Felsted

    • University of Washington
  • Chaman Gupta

    • University of Washington
  • Daniel Grass

    • Northwestern University
  • Nancy Aggarwal

    • University of California, Davis
  • Peter Pauzauskie

    • University of Washington
  • Shane L Larson

    • Northwestern University
  • Vicky Kalogera

    • Northwestern University
  • Andrew A Geraci

    • Northwestern University