Point defects in IBS coating for very low loss mirrors.

High-reflective coatings are used in many physics experiments. Despite the high quality of the optical coating, the performances of the mirrors are altered by the scattered light induced by micrometer size defects in the coating layers. The topic of this paper is the study of the point-like scatterers present in the specific coating of the mirrors used in state-of-the-art, high-sensitivity optical experiments. We studied the behavior of the materials according to different thicknesses and the resulting defects after annealing. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first insight into the formation of such defects for different materials and thickness and how this is reduced when samples are annealed.

Observation of a Correlation Between Internal friction and Urbach Energy in Amorphous Oxides Thin Films.

We have investigated by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE, 190-1700 nm) the optical properties of uniform, amorphous thin films of Ta2O5 and Nb2O5 as deposited and after annealing, and after so-called "doping" with Ti atoms which leads to mixed oxides. Ta2O5 and Ti:Ta2O5 are currently used as high-index components in Bragg reflectors for Gravitational Wave Detectors. Parallel to the optical investigation, we measured the mechanical energy dissipation of the same coatings, through the so-called "loss angle" ϕ = Q-1, which quantifies the energy loss in materials. By applying the well-known Cody-Lorentz model in the analysis of SE data we have been able to derive accurate information on the fundamental absorption edge through important parameters related to the electronic density of states, such as the optical gap (Eg) and the energy width of the exponential Urbach tail (the Urbach energy EU). We have found that EU is neatly reduced by suitable annealing as is also perceptible from direct inspection of SE data. Ti-doping also points to a minor decrease of EU. The reduction of EU parallels a lowering of the mechanical losses quantified by the loss angle ϕ. The correlation highlights that both the electronic states responsible of Urbach tail and the internal friction are sensitive to a self-correlation of defects on a medium-range scale, which is promoted by annealing and in our case, to a lesser extent, by doping. These observations may contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between structural and mechanical properties in amorphous oxides.

Photometric calibration of an in situ broadband optical thickness monitoring of thin films in a large vacuum chamber.

To improve the in situ monitoring of thin films at the Laboratoire des Matériaux Avancés, a broadband optical monitoring of the coated thin films was developed and installed in the biggest ion-beam sputtering machine in the world. Due to the configuration of the coating machine and the chamber strain under vacuum, a standard calibration procedure is impossible and a double-beam optical system is not suitable. A novel theoretical and practical solution to calibrate the measurements was found and is described in this paper. Some relevant results achieved thanks to this technique are discussed as well.

A new method of probing mechanical losses of coatings at cryogenic temperatures.

A new method of probing mechanical losses and comparing the corresponding deposition processes of metallic and dielectric coatings in 1-100 MHz frequency range and cryogenic temperatures is presented. The method is based on the use of high-quality quartz acoustic cavities whose internal losses are orders of magnitude lower than any available coating nowadays. The approach is demonstrated for chromium, chromium/gold, and multilayer tantala/silica coatings. The Ta2O5/SiO2 coating has been found to exhibit a loss angle lower than 1.6 × 10-5 near 30 MHz at 4 K. The results are compared to the previous measurements.

Realistic loss estimation due to the mirror surfaces in a 10 meters-long high finesse Fabry-Perot filter-cavity.

In order to benefit over the entire frequency range from the injection of squeezed vacuum light at the output of laser gravitational wave detectors, a small bandwidth high finesse cavity is required. In this paper, we investigate the light losses due to the flatness and the roughness of realistic mirrors in a 10 meters-long Fabry-Perot filter cavity. Using measurements of commercial super-polished mirrors, we were able to estimate the cavity round trip losses separating the loss contribution from low and high spatial frequencies. By careful tuning of the cavity g-factor and the incident position of the light on the mirrors, round trip losses due to imperfect mirror surfaces as low as 3 ppm can be achieved in the simulations.

Cryogenic measurements of mechanical loss of high-reflectivity coating and estimation of thermal noise.

We report on low-frequency measurements of the mechanical loss of a high-quality (transmissivity T<5 ppm at λ(0)=1064 nm, absorption loss <0.5 ppm) multilayer dielectric coating of ion-beam-sputtered fused silica and titanium-doped tantala in the 10-300 K temperature range. A useful parameter for the computation of coating thermal noise on different substrates is derived as a function of temperature and frequency.

Bulk optical absorption of high resistivity silicon at 1550 nm.

We report on the measurement of the optical absorption of bulk crystalline silicon at 1550 nm. Using the photodeflection technique, absorption as low as 5 ppm/cm has been measured on a sample with a resistivity of 10 kΩ·cm. The absorption as a function of the resistivity has been derived for n-type silicon.

Thermal noise from optical coatings in gravitational wave detectors.

Gravitational waves are a prediction of Einstein's general theory of relativity. These waves are created by massive objects, like neutron stars or black holes, oscillating at speeds appreciable to the speed of light. The detectable effect on the Earth of these waves is extremely small, however, creating strains of the order of 10(-21). There are a number of basic physics experiments around the world designed to detect these waves by using interferometers with very long arms, up to 4 km in length. The next-generation interferometers are currently being designed, and the thermal noise in the mirrors will set the sensitivity over much of the usable bandwidth. Thermal noise arising from mechanical loss in the optical coatings put on the mirrors will be a significant source of noise. Achieving higher sensitivity through lower mechanical loss coatings, while preserving the crucial optical and thermal properties, is an area of active research right now.