Ultrasensitive optical measurement of thermal and quantum noises

We have developed an experiment of ultrasensitive interferometric measurement of small displacements based on a high-finesse Fabry-Perot cavity. We have observed the internal thermal noise of mirrors and fully characterized their acoustics modes with a sensitivity of 3 × 10−20 m/Hz1/2. This unique sensitivity is a step towards the first observation of the radiation pressure effects and the resulting standard quantum limit in interferometric measurements. Our experiment may become a powerful facility to test quantum noise reduction schemes such as the use of squeezed light or quantum locking of mirrors. As a first result, we present the observation of a cancellation of radiation pressure effects in our cavity. This back-action noise cancellation was first proposed within the framework of gravitational-wave detection with dual resonators, and may drastically improve the sensitivity of such measurements.