Optical isolation in the LIGO gravitational wave laser detector in transient states

This paper presents a numerical analysis of the degree of optical isolation of the laser source by the Faraday isolator in transient states of the laser interferometer gravitational wave observatory (LIGO) detector. This system may be in transient states where the power of the light reflected from the detector to the laser source can exceed many times the power of the source. The present results can be used to analyse the need for installing an additional active mechanical isolation of the source and to evaluate its response time.