Lunar silicon cavity

Abstract

The Moon’s permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) are among the coldest places in the Solar System and are expected to become key landing sites for upcoming international space agency missions. Their proximity to peaks of perpetual solar power and potential resource richness makes them prime candidates for lunar exploration and future Moon bases. Here, we propose to deploy a passive, ultrastable optical resonator in these regions that will enable laser systems with unprecedented phase-coherence. The unique physical environment of lunar PSRs greatly benefits the construction of a cryogenic monolithic silicon cavity that exhibits low 10 − 18 thermal noise-limited stability and coherence time exceeding 1 min, more than a decade better than the current best terrestrial system. Such a stable laser will form an enabling infrastructure for quantum technology in space to serve many applications, including establishing a lunar time standard, building long-baseline optical interferometry, distribution of stable optical signals across networks of satellites, testing general relativity and gravitational physics, and forming the backbone for space-based quantum networks.