Date of Submission

Spring 2023

Academic Program

Physics

Project Advisor 1

Antonios Kontos

Abstract/Artist's Statement

This is a project in two parts. The first is an attempt to impart onto the reader the necessary mental models required to understand a scientific experiment related to the improvement of gravitational wave detectors. Part one is illustrated in collaboration with Simone River Wilding, Sohpie Foley, Roma Taitwood, and Cam Goldberg.

Part two is a technical description of efforts made to reduce speckle in measurements of scattered light. Gravitational wave detection requires extremely high precision measurement, and one source of noise in the detectors is scattering off of defects and surface roughness in optical coatings. Research into the development of new coatings is ongoing, and a primary method of characterization and evaluation of these coatings is the study of scattered light. Due to the coherence of laser light, speckle inhibits accurate imaging by distorting the intensity distribution. This study uses a spatial light modulator in a preliminary attempt to reduce the speckle in studies of laser scattering.

Open Access Agreement

Open Access

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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