The evaluation of phasemeter prototype performance for the space gravitational waves detection

Heterodyne laser interferometry is considered as the most promising readout scheme for future space gravitational wave detection missions, in which the gravitational wave signals disguise as small phase variances within the heterodyne beat note. This makes the phasemeter, which extracts the phase information from the beat note, the key device to this system. In this paper, a prototype of phasemeter based on digital phase-locked loop technology is developed, and the major noise sources which may contribute to the noise spectra density are analyzed in detail. Two experiments are also carried out to evaluate the performance of the phasemeter prototype. The results show that the sensitivity is achieved 2 pi mu ad/root Hz in the frequency range of 0.04 Hz-10 Hz. Due to the effect of thermal drift, the noise obviously increases with the frequencies down to 0.1 mHz. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.