Distinguished Prof David McClelland

McClelland, David profile
Department Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics
Research group Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics
Office phone (02) 612 59888
Email
Office Physics North 1 77
Webpage https://cga.anu.edu.au

Optimising a neutron star extreme matter observatory

Following a practical introduction to optical interferometry for gravitational wave detectors and simulation tools, this project will model the optical configuration to optimize detector performance against a number of possible predictions of the neutron star equation of state.

A/Prof Bram Slagmolen, Dr Lilli (Ling) Sun, Distinguished Prof David McClelland

Measurement of optical and mechanical losses of mirror coatings

Gravitational wave detectors have reached the thermodynamic limit of optical coatings. Further sensitivity improvements require new coating materials and noise mitigation techniques. This project is about designing an experiment to measure the exponential decay of mechanical oscillator modes for determining key properties of optical coatings.

Dr Johannes Eichholz, A/Prof Bram Slagmolen, Distinguished Prof David McClelland

Spatial laser mode analysis for thermal noise measurements in optical cavities

Gravitational wave detectors have reached the thermodynamic limit of optical coatings. Further sensitivity improvements require new coating materials and noise mitigation techniques. This project models the behaviour of higher order spatial laser modes in optical resonators for measuring coating thermal noise directly.

Dr Johannes Eichholz, A/Prof Bram Slagmolen, Distinguished Prof David McClelland

Low-noise offset-phase locking and heterodyne interferometry with 2µm-band lasers

Gravitational wave detectors have reached the thermodynamic limit of optical coating performance and require novel coating materials and noise mitigation techniques for further sensitivity improvements. This project is to implement a phase tracking system for the optical beat between two 2µm-band lasers for coating thermal noise measurements.

Dr Johannes Eichholz, A/Prof Bram Slagmolen, Distinguished Prof David McClelland

High-bandwidth stabilisation of a 2µm-band laser

Gravitational wave detectors have reached the thermodynamic limit of optical coating performance and require novel coating materials and coating noise suppression techniques for further sensitivity improvements. This project is to design a high-bandwidth feedback control system to stabilise the intensity and frequency of a 2µm-band laser for investigations of thermal noise in experimental mirror coatings.

Dr Johannes Eichholz, A/Prof Bram Slagmolen, Distinguished Prof David McClelland

Dual torsion pendulum for quantum noise limited sensing

Construct a small dual tosion pendulum which have their centre of mass co-incide and their rotational axis colinear. Inital diagnostics will be done using shadow sensors.

A/Prof Bram Slagmolen, Distinguished Prof David McClelland

Vibration control for optical interferometry

Develop an active vibraiton isolation platform to provide a quiet, small displacement environment for high precision inteferometry.

A/Prof Bram Slagmolen, Distinguished Prof David McClelland

Quantum squeezed states for interferometric gravitational-wave detectors

Using non-classical light states on laser interferometric gravitational-wave detectors, to further enhance the best length measurement devices in the world.

Distinguished Prof David McClelland, Professor Daniel Shaddock, A/Prof Bram Slagmolen