2011/07/22 by J. Laurent, Justine Laurent, A. Mosset +5
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Acoustics #Advanced MEMS and NEMS Technologies #Detector #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Interferometry #Laser #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Noise (video) #Noise figure #Noise floor #Noise measurement #Noise reduction #Noise spectral density #Optics #Optoelectronics #Physics #Quantum #Quantum limit #Quantum mechanics #Quantum noise #Relative intensity noise #Semiconductor laser theory #Sensitivity (control systems) #Shot noise #physics.ins-det #physics.optics #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.107.050801
published as Physical Review Letters 107, 050801 (2011) · accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters
arxiv created 2011/07/22 · openalex publication_date 2011/07/28 · arxiv updated 2011/07/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Interferometric detection of mirror displacements is intrinsically limited by laser shot noise. In practice, however, it is often limited by thermal noise. Here we report on an experiment performed at the liquid helium temperature to overcome the thermal noise limitation and investigate the effect of classical laser noise on a microlever that forms a Fabry-Perot cavity with an optical fiber. The spectral noise densities show a region of "negative" contribution of the backaction noise close to the resonance frequency. We interpret this noise reduction as a coherent coupling of the microlever to the laser intensity noise. This optomechanical effect could be used to improve the detection sensitivity as discussed in proposals going beyond the standard quantum limit.