McGhee, G. I. et al. (2023) Titania mixed with silica: a low thermal-noise coating material for gravitational-wave detectors. Physical Review Letters, 131(17), 171401. (doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.171401)
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Abstract
Coating thermal noise is one of the dominant noise sources in current gravitational wave detectors and ultimately limits their ability to observe weaker or more distant astronomical sources. This Letter presents investigations of TiO2 mixed with SiO2 (TiO2:SiO2) as a coating material. We find that, after heat treatment for 100 h at 850 °C, thermal noise of a highly reflective coating comprising of TiO2:SiO2 and SiO2 reduces to 76% of the current levels in the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors—with potential for reaching 45%, if we assume the mechanical loss of state-of-the-art SiO2 layers. Furthermore, those coatings show low optical absorption of <1 ppm and optical scattering of ≲5 ppm. Notably, we still observe excellent optical and thermal noise performance following crystallization in the coatings. These results show the potential to meet the parameters required for the next upgrades of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors.
| Item Type: | Articles |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | We are grateful for financial support from STFC (ST/V005634/1, ST/V001736/1), the University of Glasgow, the Royal Society (RG110331), ETpathfinder (Interreg Vlaanderen-Nederland), E-TEST (Interreg Euregio Meuse-Rhine), the Province of Limburg and National Science Foundation Awards No. PHY-2207998 and No. PHY-2219109. Work done at U. Montréal is funded by NSERC, CFI, and FRQNT through the RQMP. We thank our colleagues within the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration and within SUPA for their interest in this work. This Letter has LIGO Document No. P2300203. LIGO was constructed by the California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology with funding from the National Science Foundation, and operates under cooperative agreement PHY-1764464. |
| Status: | Published |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Rowan, Professor Sheila and Martin, Dr Iain and Tait, Dr Simon and Hough, Professor James and McGhee, Mr Graeme and Steinlechner, Dr Jessica and Murray, Dr Peter and Johnston, Ross |
| Authors: | McGhee, G. I., Spagnuolo, V., Demos, N., Tait, S. C., Murray, P. G., Chicoine, M., Dabadie, P., Gras, S., Hough, J., Iandolo, G. A., Johnston, R., Martinez, V., Patane, O., Rowan, S., Schiettekatte, F., Smith, J. R., Terkowski, L., Zhang, L., Evans, M., Martin, I. W., and Steinlechner, J. |
| College/School: | College of Science and Engineering College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy |
| Research Centre: | College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy > Institute for Gravitational Research |
| Journal Name: | Physical Review Letters |
| Publisher: | American Physical Society |
| ISSN: | 0031-9007 |
| ISSN (Online): | 1079-7114 |
| Published Online: | 23 October 2023 |
| Copyright Holders: | Copyright © 2023 American Physical Society |
| First Published: | First published in Physical Review Letters 131(17):171401 |
| Publisher Policy: | Reproduced under a Creative Commons license |
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