Large laser-interferometers are being constructed to create a new type of astronomy based on gravitational waves. Their sensitivities, as for many other high-precision experiments, are approaching fundamental noise limits such as the atomic vibration of their components. We are pioneering technologies to overcome these limits using novel laser beam shapes.
Carbone, L., Fulda, P., Bond, C., Brueckner, F., Brown, D., Wang, M., Lodhia, D., Palmer, R., Freise, A. The Generation of Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Optical Beams for High-precision Interferometry. J. Vis. Exp. (78), e50564, doi:10.3791/50564 (2013).