Interferometric sensing of a commercial geophone

Abstract

Abstract We present a modified commercial L-4C geophone with interferometric readout that demonstrates a resolution 60 times lower than the included coil-magnet readout at low frequencies. The intended application for the modified sensor is in vibration isolation platforms that require improved performance at frequencies lower than 1 Hz. To illustrate it’s application a controls- and noise-model of an Advanced LIGO ‘HAM-ISI’ vibration isolation system was developed, and shows that our sensor can reduce the residual motion of the platforms by a factor of 70 at 0.1 Hz.