A folded Fabry-Perot cavity for optical sensing in gravitational wave detectors

The sensitivity of standard optical schemes for the readout of weak vibrations is limited thermal and radiation pressure fluctuations induced by the small interrogation area. We propose and analyze an optical configuration allowing to overcome this problem and optimize the sensitivity of the new generation of massive gravitational wave detectors. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.