Effective Medium Description of Multilayer Coatings

Document #:

LIGO-T2100186-v1

Document type:

T - Technical notes

Abstract:

The elastic properties of multilayer coatings determine the thermal noise imposed on beams reflected from interferometer mirrors. Those properties are not simple averages of the properties of the individual layers making up the coating, and the averaged properties that enter into modeling thermal noise are different from those entering into measurement of the loss via the Q of mechanical resonators. It is the purpose of this document to establish a unified description of these elastic multilayers through the use of an effective medium theory for both isotropic (amorphous) and cubic (AlGaAs, AlGaP) layers that is applicable both for noise calculations and for analyzing loss measurements.

Files in Document:

• Effective medium summary_v14.pdf (618.5 kB)

Topics:

• Basic R&D
• Core Optics

Authors:

• Martin Fejer

Keywords:

thermal noise optical coating effective medium mechanical loss