Berlin 2018 – scientific programme
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DS: Fachverband Dünne Schichten
DS 18: Optical Analysis of Thin Films (Reflection, Ellipsometry, Raman, IR-DUV Spectroscopy, ...): Session I
DS 18.6a: Talk
Wednesday, March 14, 2018, 11:30–11:45, H 0111
Development of mirror coatings for gravitational wave detectors — •Lukas Terkowski1, Jessica Steinlechner1,2, Daniel Axmann1, Jim Hough2, Iain Martin2, Sheila Rowan2, and Roman Schnabel1 — 1Institut für Laser-Physik, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, Gebäude 69, 22761 Hamburg, Germany — 2SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, Scotland
Gravitational waves are ripples in space caused by massive, accelerated objects in space. They were predicted by Einstein more than 100 years ago and first measured in 2015. When reaching their design sensitivity, current gravitational-wave detectors - as well as all planned, future detectors - will be limited, at their most sensitive frequencies, by thermal noise from the highly-reflective mirror coatings.
To detect more, weaker gravitational waves from a wider range of astrophysical sources, it is necessary to develop new coating materials. Besides low thermal noise, there are also strong requirements on the optical absorption and optical scattering of the coatings, which have to be available in large sizes.
Due to low thermal noise, amorphous silicon seems to be a promising solution for a coating material. However, the optical absorption of commercially available amorphous silicon is currently far higher than the requirement. In this talk we will present our work on improving the optical properties of amorphous silicon by optimizing deposition parameters, to make future gravitational-wave detectors more sensitive.