High speed, high power 2D beam steering for mitigation of optomechanical parametric instability in gravitational wave detectors

Abstract: In this paper we propose a novel strategy to control optomechanical parametric instability (PI) in gravitational wave (GW) detectors, based on radiation pressure. The fast deflection of a high power beam is the key element of our approach. We built a 2D deflection system based on a pair of acousto-optic modulators (AOMs) that combines high rapidity and large scan range. As fast frequency switching configurable AOM driver we used an Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) combined with a high performance personal computer (PC). In this way we demonstrate a 2D beam steering system with flat efficiency over the whole scan range and with a transition time of 50 ns between two arbitrary consecutive deflection positions for a beam power of 3.6 W.