Peng Bo, Wu Kailan, Wu Jingui, Guo Zhongkai, Wang Yun, Li Ming, Zheng Yongchao, Li Xu, Xia Chenhui, Bai Shaojun, Wang Yiqun, Lin Xuling
Zhejiang Lab, Hangzhou 311121, China.
Beijing Institute of Space Mechanics and Electricity, Chinese Academy of Space Technology, Beijing 100094, China.
Rev Sci Instrum. 2024 Sep 1;95(9). doi: 10.1063/5.0215690.
The inter-satellite laser ranging interferometer is one of the core components of future gravity missions to achieve high ranging precision. This work builds a preliminary breadboard of the off-axis optical bench design, which integrates the merits of the off-axis optical bench design of GRACE Follow-On mission and other on-axis designs. The study finds that the displacement noise between two optical benches has been reduced to 20nm/Hz at a frequency of 10 mHz, and the differential wavefront sensing noise has been suppressed to 10-5rad/Hz at 1 kHz as well. In addition, the tilt-to-length coupling noise related to the piston effect is restricted within 30 μm/rad, and the relative parallelism error of the transmitting beam and receiving beam is less than 4.5%. The results show that this off-axis optical bench design is an important candidate for China's future gravity missions.
