Here we report the first results comparing the temperature dependence of the mechanical dissipation in thin films of Ta2O5 and Ta2O5 doped with TiO2, of a type suitable for use in the multilayer ...optical coatings for advanced gravitational wave detectors. The results indicate that doping Ta2O5 with TiO2 can significantly alter the distribution of activation energies associated with the low-temperature dissipation peak.
Reducing thermal noise from optical coatings is crucial to reaching the required sensitivity in next generation interferometric gravitational-waves detectors. Here we show that adding TiO$_2$ to ...Ta$_2$O$_5$ in Ta$_2$O$_5$/SiO$_2$ coatings reduces the internal friction and in addition present data confirming it reduces thermal noise. We also show that TiO$_2$-doped Ta$_2$O$_5$/SiO$_2$ coatings are close to satisfying the optical absorption requirements of second generation gravitational-wave detectors.
The proposed upgrade to the LIGO detectors to form the Advanced LIGO detector system is intended to incorporate a low thermal noise monolithic fused silica final stage test mass suspension based on ...developments of the GEO 600 suspension design. This will include fused silica suspension elements jointed to fused silica test mass substrates, to which dielectric mirror coatings are applied. The silica fibres used for GEO 600 were pulled using a Hydrogen-Oxygen flame system. This successful system has some limitations, however, that needed to be overcome for the more demanding suspensions required for Advanced LIGO. To this end a fibre pulling machine based on a CO2 laser as the heating element is being developed in Glasgow with funding from EGO and PPARC. At the moment a significant limitation for proposed detectors like Advanced LIGO is expected to come from the thermal noise of the mirror coatings. An investigation on mechanical losses of silica/tantala coatings was carried out by several labs involved with Advanced LIGO R&D. Doping the tantala coating layer with titania was found to reduce the coating mechanical dissipation. A review of the results is given here.
We present the results of a LIGO search for short-duration gravitational waves (GWs) associated with the 2006 March 29 SGR 1900+14 storm. A new search method is used, 'stacking' the GW data around ...the times of individual soft-gamma bursts in the storm to enhance sensitivity for models in which multiple bursts are accompanied by GW emission. We assume that variation in the time difference between burst electromagnetic emission and potential burst GW emission is small relative to the GW signal duration, and we time-align GW excess power time-frequency tilings containing individual burst triggers to their corresponding electromagnetic emissions. We use two GW emission models in our search: a fluence-weighted model and a flat (unweighted) model for the most electromagnetically energetic bursts. We find no evidence of GWs associated with either model. Model-dependent GW strain, isotropic GW emission energy E{sub GW}, and {gamma} {identical_to} E{sub GW}/E {sub EM} upper limits are estimated using a variety of assumed waveforms. The stacking method allows us to set the most stringent model-dependent limits on transient GW strain published to date. We find E {sub GW} upper limit estimates (at a nominal distance of 10 kpc) of between 2 x 10{sup 45} erg and 6 x 10{sup 50} erg depending on the waveform type. These limits are an order of magnitude lower than upper limits published previously for this storm and overlap with the range of electromagnetic energies emitted in soft gamma repeater (SGR) giant flares.
We present direct upper limits on gravitational wave emission from the Crab pulsar using data from the first 9 months of the fifth science run of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave ...Observatory (LIGO). These limits are based on two searches. In the first we assume that the gravitational wave emission follows the observed radio timing, giving an upper limit on gravitational wave emission that beats indirect limits inferred from the spin-down and braking index of the pulsar and the energetics of the nebula. In the second we allow for a small mismatch between the gravitational and radio signal frequencies and interpret our results in the context of two possible gravitational wave emission mechanisms.
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