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Thermal noise reduction and absorption optimization via multimaterial coatings

Jessica Steinlechner^1,2, Iain W. Martin^1,*, Jim Hough¹, Christoph Krüger², Sheila Rowan¹, and Roman Schnabel^2,3

¹SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland
²Institut für Gravitationsphysik, Leibniz Universität Hannover and Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik (Albert-Einstein-Institut), Callinstrasse 38, 30167 Hannover, Germany
³Institut für Laserphysik and Zentrum für Optische Quantentechnologien, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany

^*iain.martin@glasgow.ac.uk

Phys. Rev. D 91, 042001 – Published 3 February, 2015Erratum Phys. Rev. D 91, 069904 (2015)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.91.042001

Abstract

Future gravitational wave detectors (GWDs) such as Advanced LIGO upgrades and the Einstein Telescope are planned to operate at cryogenic temperatures using crystalline silicon (cSi) test-mass mirrors at an operation wavelength of 1550 nm. The reduction in temperature in principle provides a direct reduction in coating thermal noise, but the presently used coating stacks which are composed of silica ( ${SiO}_{2}$ ) and tantala ( ${Ta}_{2} O_{5}$ ) show cryogenic loss peaks which results in less thermal noise improvement than might be expected. Due to low mechanical loss at low temperature amorphous silicon (aSi) is a very promising candidate material for dielectric mirror coatings and could replace ${Ta}_{2} O_{5}$ . Unfortunately, such an $aSi / {SiO}_{2}$ coating is not suitable for use in GWDs due to high optical absorption in aSi coatings. We explore the use of a three material based coating stack. In this multimaterial design the low absorbing ${Ta}_{2} O_{5}$ in the outermost coating layers significantly reduces the incident light power, while aSi is used only in the lower bilayers to maintain low optical absorption. Such a coating design would enable a reduction of Brownian thermal noise by 25%. We show experimentally that an optical absorption of only $(5.3 \pm 0.4) ppm$ at 1550 nm should be achievable.

Corrections

4 March, 2015

Erratum

Publisher’s Note: Thermal noise reduction and absorption optimization via multimaterial coatings [Phys. Rev. D 91, 042001 (2015)]

Jessica Steinlechner, Iain W. Martin, Jim Hough, Christoph Krüger, Sheila Rowan, and Roman Schnabel

Phys. Rev. D 91, 069904 (2015)

Article Text

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Thermal noise reduction and absorption optimization via multimaterial coatings

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Erratum

Publisher’s Note: Thermal noise reduction and absorption optimization via multimaterial coatings [Phys. Rev. D 91, 042001 (2015)]

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Multimaterial coatings with reduced thermal noise

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