Reflective coating optimization for interferometric detectors of gravitational waves

Brownian fluctuations in the highly reflective test-mass coatings are the dominant noise source, in a frequency band from a few tens to a few hundreds Hz, for Earth-bound detectors of Gravitational Waves. Minimizing such noise is mandatory to increase the visibility distance of these instruments, and eventually reach their quantum-limited sensitivity. Several strategies exist to achieve this goal. Layer thickness and material properties optimization have been proposed and effectively implemented, and are reviewed in this paper, together with other, so far less well developed, options. The former is the simplest option, yielding a sensible noise reduction with limited technological challenges; the latter is more technologically demanding, but is needed for future (cryogenic) detectors.