Point Absorber Limits to Future Gravitational-Wave Detectors
Abstract
High-quality optical resonant cavities require low optical loss, typically on the scale of parts per million. However, unintended micron-scale contaminants on the resonator mirrors that absorb the light circulating in the cavity can deform the surface thermoelastically, and thus increase losses by scattering light out of the resonant mode. The point absorber effect is a limiting factor in some high-power cavity experiments, for example, the Advanced LIGO gravitational wave detector. In this Letter, we present a general approach to the point absorber effect from first principles and simulate its contribution to the increased scattering. The achievable circulating power in current and future gravitational-wave detectors is calculated statistically given different point absorber configurations. Our formulation is further confirmed experimentally in comparison with the scattered power in the arm cavity of Advanced LIGO measured by in-situ photodiodes. The understanding presented here provides an important tool in the global effort to design future gravitational wave detectors that support high optical power, and thus reduce quantum noise.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2109.08743,
title = {Point Absorber Limits to Future Gravitational-Wave Detectors},
author = {W. Jia and H. Yamamoto and K. Kuns and A. Effler and M. Evans and P. Fritschel and R. Abbott and C. Adams and R. X. Adhikari and A. Ananyeva and S. Appert and K. Arai and J. S. Areeda and Y. Asali and S. M. Aston and C. Austin and A. M. Baer and M. Ball and S. W. Ballmer and S. Banagiri and D. Barker and L. Barsotti and J. Bartlett and B. K. Berger and J. Betzwieser and D. Bhattacharjee and G. Billingsley and S. Biscans and C. D. Blair and R. M. Blair and N. Bode and P. Booker and R. Bork and A. Bramley and A. F. Brooks and D. D. Brown and A. Buikema and C. Cahillane and K. C. Cannon and X. Chen and A. A. Ciobanu and F. Clara and C. M. Compton and S. J. Cooper and K. R. Corley and S. T. Countryman and P. B. Covas and D. C. Coyne and L. E. H. Datrier and D. Davis and C. Di Fronzo and K. L. Dooley and J. C. Driggers and P. Dupej and S. E. Dwyer and T. Etzel and T. M. Evans and J. Feicht and A. Fernandez-Galiana and V. V. Frolov and P. Fulda and M. Fyffe and J. A. Giaime and K. D. Giardina and P. Godwin and E. Goetz and S. Gras and C. Gray and R. Gray and A. C. Green and E. K. Gustafson and R. Gustafson and E. Hall and J. Hanks and J. Hanson and T. Hardwick and R. K. Hasskew and M. C. Heintze and A. F. Helmling-Cornell and N. A. Holland and J. D. Jones and S. Kandhasamy and S. Karki and M. Kasprzack and K. Kawabe and N. Kijbunchoo and P. J. King and J. S. Kissel and Rahul Kumar and M. Landry and B. B. Lane and B. Lantz and M. Laxen and Y. K. Lecoeuche and J. Leviton and J. Liu and M. Lormand and A. P. Lundgren and R. Macas and M. MacInnis and D. M. Macleod and G. L. Mansell and S. Márka and Z. Márka and D. V. Martynov and K. Mason and T. J. Massinger and F. Matichard and N. Mavalvala and R. McCarthy and D. E. McClelland and S. McCormick and L. McCuller and J. McIver and T. McRae and G. Mendell and K. Merfeld and E. L. Merilh and F. Meylahn and T. Mistry and R. Mittleman and G. Moreno and C. M. Mow-Lowry and S. Mozzon and A. Mullavey and T. J. N. Nelson and P. Nguyen and L. K. Nuttall and J. Oberling and Richard J. Oram and C. Osthelder and D. J. Ottaway and H. Overmier and J. R. Palamos and W. Parker and E. Payne and A. Pele and R. Penhorwood and C. J. Perez and M. Pirello and H. Radkins and K. E. Ramirez and J. W. Richardson and K. Riles and N. A. Robertson and J. G. Rollins and C. L. Romel and J. H. Romie and M. P. Ross and K. Ryan and T. Sadecki and E. J. Sanchez and L. E. Sanchez and T. R. Saravanan and R. L. Savage and D. Schaetzl and R. Schnabel and R. M. S. Schofield and E. Schwartz and D. Sellers and T. Shaffer and D. Sigg and B. J. J. Slagmolen and J. R. Smith and S. Soni and B. Sorazu and A. P. Spencer and K. A. Strain and L. Sun and M. J. Szczepańczyk and M. Thomas and P. Thomas and K. A. Thorne and K. Toland and C. I. Torrie and G. Traylor and M. Tse and A. L. Urban and G. Vajente and G. Valdes and D. C. Vander-Hyde and P. J. Veitch and K. Venkateswara and G. Venugopalan and A. D. Viets and T. Vo and C. Vorvick and M. Wade and R. L. Ward and J. Warner and B. Weaver and R. Weiss and C. Whittle and B. Willke and C. C. Wipf and L. Xiao and Hang Yu and Haocun Yu and L. Zhang and M. E. Zucker and J. Zweizig},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2109.08743},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
7 pages, 3 figures