CaltechAUTHORS
Published September 29, 2004 | Version Published
Book Section - Chapter Open

Optical coatings for gravitational wave detection

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon California Institute of Technology

Contributors

Abstract

Gravitational waves are a prediction of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. Astrophysical events like supernova and binary neutron star inspirals are predicted to create potentially detectable waves. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) is an experiment to detect these waves using Michelson interferometers with 4 km long arms. The effect of gravitational waves, even on an interferometer with such a long baseline, is extremely, with mirror displacements around 10^(-18)m. Reducing noise is thus a primary design criterion. For the next generation interferometers now being designed, thermal noise from the optical coatings of the interferometer mirrors could prove a problematic limiting noise source. Reducing the mechanical loss of these coatings to improve thermal noise, while preserving the sub-ppm optical absorption, low scatter, and high reflectivity needed in the interferometer is an important area of research.

Additional Information

© 2004 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). The LIGO Observatories were constructed by the California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology with funding from the National Science Foundation under cooperative agreement PHY 9210038. The LIGO Laboratory operates under cooperative agreement PHY-0107417. This paper has been assigned LIGO Document Number LIGO-P040023-00-D.

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
93134
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20190221-110526711

Funding

NSF
PHY-9210038
NSF
PHY-0107417

Dates

Created
2019-02-25
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-16
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
LIGO
Series Name
Proceedings of SPIE
Series Volume or Issue Number
5527
Other Numbering System Name
LIGO Document
Other Numbering System Identifier
P040023-00-D