Developing an In-Air IR Test Facility for Next-Generation Wavefront Control

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Abstract:: Thermally-induced defects, particularly point absorbers, are a persistent problem in ramping up LIGO's power to lower the quantum noise floor (the sensing limit imposed by photon shot noise). One proposed solution is to use a ring heater adaptive optics device to project a thermal correction map onto the LIGO test masses to minimize the scattering into higher order mode. In order to test this concept, an in-air IR test facility, with a focus on the control of the IR camera, is developed. Using an IR-absorptive thin screen with an IR camera behind it, the thermal maps created by the ring heater can be tested and refined. By developing code to control the camera, particularly fine-tuning control over temperature measurements, these thermal maps and their effectiveness can be accurately analyzed.

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LIGO Document T2200205-v6