High-Gain Power Recycling of a Fabry Perot Michelson Interferometer for a Gravitational-Wave Antenna

Power recycling was implemented on a fully suspended prototype interferometer with arm lengths of 20 m. A wave-front-sensing technique for alignment control of the suspended mirrors was also implemented, which allowed for several hours of stable operation. A power-recycling gain of greater than 12 was achieved, a significant increase over the highest gain in a suspended mirror Fabry Perot Michelson interferometer reported to date

Direct Measurement of Thermal Fluctuation of High-Q Pendulum

We achieved for the first time a direct measurement of the thermal fluctuation of a pendulum in an off-resonant region using a laser interferometric gravitational wave detector. These measurements have been well identified for over one decade by an agreement with a theoretical prediction, which was derived by a fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Thermal fluctuation is dominated by the contribution of resistances in coil-magnet actuator circuits. When we tuned these resistances, the noise spectrum also changed according to a theoretical prediction. The measured thermal noise level corresponds to a high quality factor on the order of 10^5 of the pendulum.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Thermal-noise-limited underground interferometer CLIO

We report on the current status of CLIO (Cryogenic Laser Interferometer Observatory), which is a prototype interferometer for LCGT (Large Scale Cryogenic Gravitational-Wave Telescope). LCGT is a Japanese next-generation interferometric gravitational wave detector featuring the use of cryogenic mirrors and a quiet underground site. The main purpose of CLIO is to demonstrate a reduction of the mirror thermal noise by cooling the sapphire mirrors. CLIO is located in an underground site of the Kamioka mine, 1000 m deep from the mountain top, to verify its advantages. After a few years of commissioning work, we have achieved a thermal-noise-limited sensitivity at room temperature. One of the main results of noise hunting was the elimination of thermal noise caused by a conductive coil-holder coupled with a pendulum through magnets.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, Proceedings of the 8th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Wave

Mechanical loss of a multilayer tantala/silica coating on a sapphire disk at cryogenic temperatures: toward the KAGRA gravitational wave detector

We report the results of a new experimental setup to measure the mechanical loss of coating layers on a thin sapphire disk at cryogenic temperatures. Some of the authors previously reported that there was no temperature dependence of the mechanical loss from a multilayer tantala/silica coating on a sapphire disk, both before and after heat treatment, although some reports indicate that Ta<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub> and SiO<sub>2</sub> layers annealed at 600 °C have loss peaks near 20 K. Since KAGRA—the Japanese gravitational-wave detector, currently under construction—will be operated at 20 K and have coated sapphire mirrors, it is very important to clarify the mechanical loss behavior of tantala/silica coatings around this temperature. We carefully investigate a tantala/silica-coated sapphire disk with the new setup, anneal the disk, and then investigate the annealed disk. We find that there is no distinct loss peak both before and after annealing under particular conditions. The mechanical loss for the unannealed disk at 20 K is about 5×10<sup>−4</sup>, as previously reported, while that for the annealed disk is approximately 6.4×10<sup>−4</sup>

Sapphire mirror for the KAGRA gravitational wave detector

KAGRA, the Japanese interferometric gravitational wave detector currently under construction, will employ sapphire test masses for its cryogenic operation. Sapphire has an advantage in its higher thermal conductivity near the operating temperature 20 K compared to fused silica used in other gravitational wave detectors, but there are some uncertain properties for the application such as hardness, optical absorption, and birefringence. We introduce an optical design of the test masses and our recent R&D results to address the above properties. Test polish of sapphire substrate has especially proven that specifications on the surface are sufficiently met. Recent measurements of absorption and inhomogeneity of the refractive index of the sapphire substrate indicate that the other properties are also acceptable to use sapphire crystal as test masses

Cryogenic measurement of the optical absorption coefficient in sapphire crystals at 1.064(micro)m for the Large-scale Cryogenic Gravitational wave Telescope

We have applied laser calorimetry to the measurement of optical absorption in mono-crystalline sapphire at cryogenic temperatures. Sapphire is a promising candidate for the mirror substrates of the Large-scale Cryogenic Gravitational wave Telescope. The optical absorption coefficients of different sapphire samples at a wavelength of 1.064(micro)m at 5K were found to average 90ppm/cm.Comment: 8 pages, accepted to Phys. Lett.

Reduction of thermal fluctuations in a cryogenic laser interferometric gravitational wave detector

The thermal fluctuation of mirror surfaces is the fundamental limitation for interferometric gravitational wave (GW) detectors. Here, we experimentally demonstrate for the first time a reduction in a mirror's thermal fluctuation in a GW detector with sapphire mirrors from the Cryogenic Laser Interferometer Observatory at 17\,K and 18\,K. The detector sensitivity, which was limited by the mirror's thermal fluctuation at room temperature, was improved in the frequency range of 90\,Hz to 240\,Hz by cooling the mirrors. The improved sensitivity reached a maximum of $2.2 \times 10^{-19}\,\textrm{m}/\sqrt{\textrm{Hz}}$ at 165\,Hz.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters, 5 pages, 2 figure

Conduction Effect of Thermal Radiation in a Metal Shield Pipe in a Cryostat for a Cryogenic Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detector

A large heat load caused by thermal radiation through a metal shield pipe was observed in a cooling test of a cryostat for a prototype of a cryogenic interferometric gravitational wave detector. The heat load was approximately 1000 times larger than the value calculated by the Stefan-Boltzmann law. We studied this phenomenon by simulation and experiment and found that it was caused by the conduction of thermal radiation in a metal shield pipe.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, Submitted to Jpn. J. Appl. Phy

Measurement of the mechanical loss of a cooled reflective coating for gravitational wave detection

We have measured the mechanical loss of a dielectric multilayer reflective coating (ion-beam sputtered SiO$_2$ and Ta$_2$O$_5$) in cooled mirrors. The loss was nearly independent of the temperature (4 K $\sim$ 300 K), frequency, optical loss, and stress caused by the coating, and the details of the manufacturing processes. The loss angle was $(4 \sim 6) \times 10^{-4}$. The temperature independence of this loss implies that the amplitude of the coating thermal noise, which is a severe limit in any precise measurement, is proportional to the square root of the temperature. Sapphire mirrors at 20 K satisfy the requirement concerning the thermal noise of even future interferometric gravitational wave detector projects on the ground, for example, LCGT.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables : accepted version (by Physical Review D

Current status of Japanese detectors

Current status of TAMA and CLIO detectors in Japan is reported in this article. These two interferometric gravitational-wave detectors are being developed for the large cryogenic gravitational wave telescope (LCGT) which is a future plan for detecting gravitational wave signals at least once per year. TAMA300 is being upgraded to improve the sensitivity in low frequency region after the last observation experiment in 2004. To reduce the seismic noises, we are installing new seismic isolation system, which is called TAMA Seismic Attenuation System, for the four test masses. We confirmed stable mass locks of a cavity and improvements of length and angular fluctuations by using two SASs. We are currently optimizing the performance of the third and fourth SASs. We continue TAMA300 operation and R&D studies for LCGT. Next data taking in the summer of 2007 is planned. CLIO is a 100-m baseline length prototype detector for LCGT to investigate interferometer performance in cryogenic condition. The key features of CLIO are that it locates Kamioka underground site for low seismic noise level, and adopts cryogenic Sapphire mirrors for low thermal noise level. The first operation of the cryogenic interferometer was successfully demonstrated in February of 2006. Current sensitivity at room temperature is close to the target sensitivity within a factor of 4. Several observation experiments at room temperature have been done. Once the displacement noise reaches at thermal noise level of room temperature, its improvement by cooling test mass mirrors should be demonstrated.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, Proceedings of GWDAW-1