A fiber-fed laser interferometer for optical metrology at cryogenic temperatures

Citation

D. Naylor^*, I. Veenendaal, B. Gom, and A. Christiansen. "A fiber-fed laser interferometer for optical metrology at cryogenic temperatures". In: Photonic Instrumentation Engineering V, 10539:105390T, 2018. San Francisco, USA. DOI: 10.1117/12.2287466.
Conference Proceedings Presentation

Abstract

Nature is such that observations at far-infrared wavelengths are optimal for exploring both the nearby and distant Universe. The minute amount of energy carried by far-infrared photons, however, requires extremely sensitive instrumentation for their detection. Moreover, the instrumentation itself must be cooled to <4 K to avoid an unwanted photon noise component from self-emission, and often requires precision metrology at these temperatures. A variety of cryogenic metrology techniques have been used successfully on previous space astronomy missions, each having its own limitations. In this paper we present a fiber-based laser metrology system, designed for optical position metrology at cryogenic temperatures.