Optical elements on a suspended optical bench (January 2016)

Optical elements on a suspended optical bench (January 2016)

Optical elements (lenses and mirrors) installed on an optical bench suspended and put in vacuum. The larger elements are used to reduce the size of the laser beam going out of the interferometer from a few centimeters down to less than a millimeter. The other optical elements are used to bring and focalize the beam onto sensors as photodiodes and cameras.

Credits: Cyril Frésillon/Virgo/Photothèque CNRS