SILICON NITRIDE MEMBRANES AS SUBSTRATES IN MEASURING THE MECHANICAL LOSS PROPERTIES OF OPTICAL COATINGS USED IN GRAVITATIONAL WAVE DETECTION

Document #:

LIGO-P1800110-v1

Document type:

P - Publications

Abstract:

Thermal noise due to the interaction of optical coatings with their environment is a fundamental source of noise in the current generation of gravitational wave detectors. Thermal noise is suppressed in high Quality (Q) factor materials. It is crucial to accurately characterize materials and coating methods that yield the largest possible mechanical Q factor. Current methods to measure the Q of optical coating candidates suffer in precision due to their deposition onto relatively much thicker substrates which store a disproportionate fraction of the elastic energy of oscillations monitored during measurements. We propose a new experimental approach that may more precisely measure the Q of coatings by drastically reducing the elastic energy stored in the substrates, depositing the coatings onto 100 nm thick Silicon Nitride membranes.

Files in Document:

• Seth Linker LIGO Coatings Thesis v1.pdf (44.7 MB)

Topics:

• Core Optics

Author Groups:

• LSC