Measurement of radiation-pressure-induced optomechanical dynamics in a suspended Fabry-Perot cavity

Abstract

We report on experimental observation of radiation-pressure induced effects in a high-power optical cavity. These effects play an important role in next generation gravitational wave (GW) detectors, as well as in quantum non-demolition (QND) interferometers. We measure the properties of an optical spring, created by coupling of an intense laser field to the pendulum mode of a suspended mirror; and also the parametric instability (PI) that arises from the nonlinear coupling between acoustic modes of the cavity mirrors and the cavity optical mode. Specifically, we measure an optical rigidity of K = 3 x 10⁴ N/m, and PI value R = 3.