A low-noise analog frontend design for the Taiji phasemeter prototype

The Taiji program plans to utilize the laser interferometer to measure the movement at the picometer level between free-floating test masses. As the phase readout equipment, the phasemeter needs to obtain the beat note with an accuracy of μrad/ Hz . The main source of noise in the phasemeter is the analog frontend of the analog to digital converter. A self-designed phasemeter prototype with a low-noise analog frontend, which includes the theme of the pilot tone correction, has been developed and tested for the Taiji program in this Note. The experimental results show that the performance of the developed phasemeter can satisfy the Taiji sensitivity requirement in the whole frequency range. The sensitivity of the board can reach 0.5 μrad/ Hz in the frequency range of 0.1–1 Hz. Therefore, the prototype gives us a good model for the fully functional Taiji phasemeter.