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Cryogenic mechanical loss of a single-crystalline GaP coating layer for precision measurement applications

Peter G. Murray, Iain W. Martin, Kieran Craig, James Hough, Sheila Rowan, Riccardo Bassiri, Martin M. Fejer, James S. Harris, Brian T. Lantz, Angie C. Lin, Ashot S. Markosyan, and Roger K. Route
Phys. Rev. D 95, 042004 – Published 17 February 2017

Abstract

The first direct observations of gravitational waves have been made by the Advanced LIGO detectors. However, the quest to improve the sensitivities of these detectors remains, and epitaxially grown single-crystal coatings show considerable promise as alternatives to the ion-beam sputtered amorphous mirror coatings typically used in these detectors and other such precision optical measurements. The mechanical loss of a 1μm thick single-crystalline gallium phosphide (GaP) coating, incorporating a buffer layer region necessary for the growth of high quality epitaxial coatings, has been investigated over a broad range of frequencies and with fine temperature resolution. It is shown that at 20 K the mechanical loss of GaP is a factor of 40 less than an undoped tantala film heat-treated to 600°C and is comparable to the loss of a multilayer GaP/AlGaP coating. This is shown to translate into possible reductions in coating thermal noise of a factor of 2 at 120 K and 5 at 20 K over the current best IBS coatings (alternating stacks of silica and titania-doped tantala). There is also evidence of a thermally activated dissipation process between 50 and 70 K.

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  • Received 16 November 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.95.042004

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Authors & Affiliations

Peter G. Murray*, Iain W. Martin, Kieran Craig, James Hough, and Sheila Rowan

  • SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, Scotland

Riccardo Bassiri, Martin M. Fejer, James S. Harris, Brian T. Lantz, Angie C. Lin, Ashot S. Markosyan, and Roger K. Route

  • Edward L Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94304, USA

  • *peter.murray@glasgow.ac.uk
  • iain.martin@glasgow.ac.uk

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Issue

Vol. 95, Iss. 4 — 15 February 2017

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