| Citation: | FENG Jian-chao, CHEN Kun, CHEN Chang-yong, XIA Jia-yi, HAN Lian-xin, LV Gang, LI Liu-feng, CHEN Li-sheng. Precision thermal control design for on-board reference cavity in laser frequency pre-stabilization for gravitational wave detection[J]. Chinese Optics. doi: 10.37188/CO.2026-0085
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Space-based gravitational wave detection missions require the on-board laser to exhibit extremely low frequency noise. To meet this requirement, the frequency noise of a free-running laser, especially its low-frequency components, must be suppressed by approximately five orders of magnitude through a laser frequency pre-stabilization system, achieving a level below 30 Hz/√Hz (1 mHz–1 Hz). This stringent specification imposes a demanding requirement on the temperature stability of the reference cavity module—the core component of the laser frequency pre-stabilization system—which must achieve precision thermal control near its coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) null point. In this paper, we focus on the precision thermal control requirements of the engineering prototype of a on-board frequency pre-stabilization system, and specifically on its reference cavity module. A cascaded precision thermal control scheme combining a two-stage thermal control architecture is designed and verified on the ground. This scheme employs an constant temperature cage as the first-stage active temperature-stabilized shield, coupled with a second-stage passive thermal isolation layer to implement two-stage control, suppressing the temperature fluctuation of the reference cavity vacuum chamber to below 1 mK, ensure the length stability of the optical reference cavity. The overall thermal control design, system simulation, detailed thermal control implementation, and the experimental results of equivalent ground verification are elaborated. The experimental results demonstrate that under a simulated on-board environmental disturbance of ±1 K, the designed precision thermal control scheme can maintain the reference cavity module temperature stably at the target set-point with a temperature stability better than 0.3 mK for a duration exceeding 2000 s. This performance satisfies the precision thermal control requirements of on-board frequency pre-stabilization system for space-based gravitational wave detection, providing key technical support for subsequent engineering development.
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