Sheng-Jui Chen et al 2006 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 32 244 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/32/1/036
Sheng-Jui Chen, Hsien-Hao Mei and Wei-Tou Ni
Show affiliationsThe Q & A experiment, aiming at the detection of vacuum birefringence predicted by quantum electrodynamics, consists mainly of a suspended 3.5 m Fabry-Perot cavity, a rotating permanent dipole magnet and an ellipsometer. The 2.3 T magnet can rotate up to 10 rev/s, introducing an ellipticity signal at twice the rotation frequency. The X-pendulum gives a good isolation ratio for seismic noise above its main resonant frequency 0.3 Hz. At present, the ellipsometry noise decreases with frequency, from 1 × 10−5 rad.Hz−½ at 5 Hz, 2×10−6 rad.Hz−½ at 20 Hz to 5×10−7 rad.Hz−½ at 40 Hz. The shape of the noise spectrum indicates possible improvement can be made by further reducing the movement between the cavity mirrors. From the preliminary result of yaw motion alignment control, it can be seen that some peaks due to yaw motion of the cavity mirror was suppressed. In this paper, we first give a schematic view of the Q & A experiment, and then present the measurement of transfer function of the compound X-pendulum-double pendulum suspension. A closed-loop control was carried out to verify the validity of the measured transfer functions. The ellipsometry noise spectra with and without yaw alignment control and the newest improvement is presented.
04.80.-y Experimental studies of gravity
07.60.Fs Polarimeters and ellipsometers
Issue 1 (2006)
Sheng-Jui Chen et al 2006 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 32 244
John Robertson 2006 Rep. Prog. Phys. 69 327
Arnd Bäcker and Roman Schubert 2002 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 35 539
Peng-Fei Hao et al 2006 J. Micromech. Microeng. 16 1397
J M Aguirregabiria et al 2004 Eur. J. Phys. 25 555
K F Freed 1979 J. Phys. C: Solid State Phys. 12 L17
S Baillet et al 2001 Phys. Med. Biol. 46 77
M J T Milton et al 2006 Metrologia 43 S291
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