Thermal noise in high-reflectivity mirror coatings is a limiting factor in ground-based gravita-tional wave detectors. Reducing this coating thermal noise improves the sensitivity of detectorsand enriches the scientific outcome of observing runs. Crystalline gallium arsenide and aluminum-alloyed gallium arsenide (referred to as AlGaAs) coatings are promising coating candidates forfuture upgrades of gravitational wave detectors because of their low coating thermal noise. How-ever, AlGaAs-based crystalline coatings may be susceptible to an electro-optic noise induced byfluctuations in an electric field. We investigated the electro-optic effect in an AlGaAs coating byusing a Fabry-Perot cavity, and concluded that the noise level is well below the sensitivity of currentand planned gravitational-wave detectors.
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Strategies to reduce the thermoelastic loss of multimaterial coated finite substrates
Abstract Thermoelastic loss is an important energy dissipation mechanisms in resonant systems. A careful analysis of the thermoelastic loss is critical to the design of low-noise devices for high-precision applications, such as the mirrors used for gravitational-wave (GW) detectors. In this paper, we present analytical solutions to the thermoelastic loss due to thermoelasticity between different materials that are in contact. We find expressions for the thermoelastic loss of multimaterial coatings of finite substrates, and analyze its dependencies on material properties, mirror design and operating experimental conditions. Our results show that lower operating mirror temperature, thinner layers and higher number of interfaces in the coating, and the choice of the first layer of the coating that minimizes the thermal expansion mismatch with the substrate are strategies that reduce the thermoelastic loss and, therefore, diminish the thermal noise that limits the resolution in sensing applications. The results presented in this paper are relevant for the development of low-noise GW detectors and for other experiments sensitive to energy dissipation mechanisms when different materials are in contact.
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- PAR ID:
- 10484008
- Publisher / Repository:
- IOP Publishing
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Classical and Quantum Gravity
- Volume:
- 40
- Issue:
- 14
- ISSN:
- 0264-9381
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 144001
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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