Khalaidovski, A., Steinlechner, J. and Schnabel, R. (2013) Indication for dominating surface absorption in crystalline silicon test masses at 1550 nm. Classical and Quantum Gravity, 30(16), p. 165001. (doi: 10.1088/0264-9381/30/16/165001)
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Abstract
The sensitivity of future gravitational wave (GW) observatories will be limited by thermal noise in a wide frequency band. To reduce thermal noise, the European GW observatory Einstein GW Telescope (ET) is suggested to use crystalline silicon test masses at cryogenic temperature and a laser wavelength of 1550 nm. Here, we report a measurement of the optical loss in a prototype high-resistivity crystalline silicon test mass as a function of optical intensity at room temperature. The total loss from both the bulk crystal and the surfaces was determined in a joint measurement. The characterization window ranged from small intensities below 1W/cm^2, as planned to be used in ET, up to 21kW/cm^2. A nonlinear absorption was observed for intensities above a few kW/cm^2. In addition, we have observed an intensity-independent offset that possibly arises from absorption in the crystal surfaces. This absorption was estimated to α ≈ 800 ppm/surface, which might be too high for a cryogenic operation of a fiber-suspended silicon test mass. Such an offset was not observed in other recent measurements that were insensitive to surface absorption. Finally, a set of further characterization measurements is proposed to clearly separate the contributions from the surfaces and the bulk crystal.
Item Type: | Articles |
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Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Steinlechner, Dr Jessica |
Authors: | Khalaidovski, A., Steinlechner, J., and Schnabel, R. |
Subjects: | Q Science > QC Physics |
College/School: | College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy |
Journal Name: | Classical and Quantum Gravity |
Publisher: | IOP Publishing Ltd. |
ISSN: | 0264-9381 |
ISSN (Online): | 1361-6382 |
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