MiniGRAIL

Gravitational Radiation Antenna In Leiden

Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory, Leiden University, The Netherlands

Transducer

A transducer converts the mechanical signal of the oscillations of the antenna into an electromagnetic signal. The resonant transducer amplifies the mechanical signal before it is converted. A resonant transducer consists of a secondary mechanical resonator coupled to the antenna with a spring and tuned to the resonant frequency of the mode of interest. In the simulation, the membrane acts as a spring, which couples the resonator mass to the transducer support. The support is a conical ring, which is clamped inside a hole in the sphere using differential contraction. The mechanical amplification of the signal is proportional to the square root of the ratio of the effective mass of the sphere and the transducer mass.