The limit sensitivity of interferometric gravitational wave antennas is set by the thermal noise in the dielectric mirror coatings. These are currently made of alternating quarter-wavelength high/low index material layers with low mechanical losses. The quarter-wavelength design yields the maximum reflectivity for a fixed number of layers, but not the lowest noise for a prescribed reflectivity. This motivated our recent investigation of optimal thickness configurations, which guarantee the lowest thermal noise for a targeted reflectivity. This communication provides a compact overview of our results, involving nonperiodic genetically-engineered and truncated periodically-layered configurations. Possible implications for the advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (LIGO) are discussed.
Optimized multilayer dielectric mirror coatings for gravitational wave interferometers
G. Castaldi;V. Galdi;V. Pierro;I. M. Pinto
2006-01-01
Abstract
The limit sensitivity of interferometric gravitational wave antennas is set by the thermal noise in the dielectric mirror coatings. These are currently made of alternating quarter-wavelength high/low index material layers with low mechanical losses. The quarter-wavelength design yields the maximum reflectivity for a fixed number of layers, but not the lowest noise for a prescribed reflectivity. This motivated our recent investigation of optimal thickness configurations, which guarantee the lowest thermal noise for a targeted reflectivity. This communication provides a compact overview of our results, involving nonperiodic genetically-engineered and truncated periodically-layered configurations. Possible implications for the advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (LIGO) are discussed.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
