Prototype of an ultra-stable optic cavity for space applications

We report the main features and performances of a prototype of an ultra-stable cavity designed and realized by industry for space applications with the aim of space missions. The cavity is a 100 mm long cylinder rigidly held at its midplane by a engineered mechanical interface providing an efficient decoupling from thermal and vibration perturbations. Intensive finite element modeling was performed in order to optimize thermal and vibration sensitivities while getting a high fundamental resonance frequency. The system was designed to be transportable, acceleration tolerant (up to several g) and temperature range compliant [−33◦C;73◦C]. Thermal isolation is ensured by gold coated Aluminum shields inside a stainless steel enclosure for vacuum. The axial vibration sensitivity was evaluated at(4±0.5)×10 −11/(m.s−2), while the transverse one is