Technologies for Space-Based Optical Interferometry

The quest to detect gravitational waves is entering a new era with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) now under development. LISA is a two billion dollar joint NASA/ESA deep space mission to build a gravitational wave observatory in space. This research will develop Australian laser technologies critical to the success of LISA and other future deep space missions. The work will focus on the single greatest challenge facing the LISA interferometry, the removal of laser frequency noise. By implementing three complementary techniques, tilt locking, arm locking and time-delay interferometry, the laser frequency noise can be suppressed by the 14 orders of magnitude required to meet the LISA sensitivity target.