Jena 2013 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 23: Poster (permanent)

GR 23.2: Poster

Freitag, 1. März 2013, 14:45–14:45, HS 6

Mechanical loss of ion-implanted tantala layers — •Bastian Walter, Julius Komma, Gerd Hofmann, Christian Schwarz, Daniel Heinert, Paul Seidel, Claudia Schnohr, and Ronny Nawrodt — Institut für Festkörperphysik, FSU Jena, Helmholtzweg 5, D-07743 Jena

The sensitivity of future gravitational wave detectors will be limited by Brownian thermal noise of the optical components. One approach is to utilize low mechanical loss materials for the substrates and coatings as well as cryogenic temperatures. However, high performance dielectric layers for high-reflectivity coatings - like tantala or silica - show large mechanical losses and thus high Brownian thermal noise at low temperatures due to their amorphous nature. It was found that co-doping of tantala layers with titania significantly reduces the mechanical loss and thus the Brownian thermal noise.

We present detailed studies of the mechanical loss of post-deposition ion-implanted tantala coatings and of the influence of heat treatments. These measurements give evidence that it is possible to reduce the mechanical loss of the tantala layers by ion-implantation.

This work is supported by the German science foundation DFG under contract SFB TR7.