- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review D

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Measurement of thermo-optic and coating Brownian noise in a novel coating design

Namisha Chabbra, Andrew Wade, and Kirk McKenzie

Nicholas Demos, Slawomir Gras, and Matthew Evans

PDF

Phys. Rev. D 112, 082003 – Published 6 October, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/n7pr-fr2n

Abstract

Current gravitational wave detectors and other high precision instrumentation are limited by the optical quality and thermal noise properties of highly reflective dielectric optical coatings. This study characterizes a custom designed high reflectivity optical coating using silica and tantalum pentoxide (SiO2 and Ta2O5) on an ultralow-expansion glass substrate. This coating has been designed to have high thermal noise properties for a future experiment that aims to reduce the effect of Brownian coating noise. This paper presents, to our knowledge, the first measurement of thermo-optic noise for a SiO2:Ta2O5 coating. We also present the coating design process of the unique coating and verify modeled coating properties, including transmission, absorption, Brownian coating noise, and thermo-optic noise. With a better understanding of thermo-optic noise and Brownian noise of unique coatings, the design process for optimizing optical coating for lower thermal noise can be better informed, such that the sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors and other precision instrumentation using highly reflective optical coatings is increased.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Corrections

12 November, 2025

Correction: The previously published Fig. 6 contained an axis-label error and was replaced.

Article Text

Supplemental Material

References (34)

  1. A. Buikema et al., Phys. Rev. D 102, 062003 (2020).
  2. European Space Agency, LISA Factsheet (2024) (accessed: 2024-02-14).
  3. K. Abich et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 031101 (2019).
  4. NASA Earth Science, Decadal Survey: Most Complete Earth Science Study (2024) (accessed: 2024-02-14).
  5. A. D. Ludlow, X. Huang, M. Notcutt, T. Zanon-Willette, S. M. Foreman, M. M. Boyd, S. Blatt, and J. Ye, Opt. Lett. 32, 641 (2007).
  6. A. D. Ludlow, M. M. Boyd, J. Ye, E. Peik, and P. O. Schmidt, Rev. Mod. Phys. 87, 637 (2015).
  7. S. Herrmann, A. Senger, K. Möhle, M. Nagel, E. V. Kovalchuk, and A. Peters, Phys. Rev. D 80, 105011 (2009).
  8. L. Barsotti, S. Gras, M. Evans, and P. Fritschel, Technical Note: The updated Advanced LIGO design curve, Technical Report No. T1800044-v5, Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, 2018 (accessed: 2024-02-14).
  9. S. Gras, H. Yu, W. Yam, D. Martynov, and M. Evans, Phys. Rev. D 95, 022001 (2017).
  10. G. Vajente, L. Yang, A. Davenport, M. Fazio, A. Ananyeva, L. Zhang, G. Billingsley, K. Prasai, A. Markosyan, R. Bassiri, M. M. Fejer, M. Chicoine, F. Schiettekatte, and C. S. Menoni, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 071101 (2021).
  11. K. Craig, J. Steinlechner, P. G. Murray, A. S. Bell, I. Birney, K. Haughian, J. Hough, I. MacLaren, S. Penn, S. Reid, R. Robie, S. Rowan, and I. W. Martin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 231102 (2019).
  12. A. Wade and K. McKenzie, Phys. Rev. A 106, 023511 (2022).
  13. J. Steinlechner, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 376, 20170282 (2018).
  14. M. Bondarescu, O. Kogan, and Y. Chen, Phys. Rev. D 78, 082002 (2008).
  15. T. Chalermsongsak, E. D. Hall, G. D. Cole, D. Follman, F. Seifert, K. Arai, E. K. Gustafson, J. R. Smith, M. Aspelmeyer, and R. X. Adhikari, Metrologia 53, 860 (2016).
  16. T. Hong, H. Yang, E. K. Gustafson, R. X. Adhikari, and Y. Chen, Phys. Rev. D 87, 082001 (2013).
  17. W. Yam, S. Gras, and M. Evans, Phys. Rev. D 91, 042002 (2015).
  18. S. C. Tait, J. Steinlechner, M. M. Kinley-Hanlon, P. G. Murray, J. Hough, G. McGhee, F. Pein, S. Rowan, R. Schnabel, C. Smith, L. Terkowski, and I. W. Martin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 011102 (2020).
  19. M. Evans, S. Ballmer, M. Fejer, P. Fritschel, G. Harry, and G. Ogin, Phys. Rev. D 78, 102003 (2008).
  20. V. B. Braginsky, M. L. Gorodetsky, and S. P. Vyatchanin, Phys. Lett. A 271, 303 (2000).
  21. Y. Levin, Phys. Lett. A 372, 1941 (2008).
  22. M. J. Martin, Quantum metrology and many-body physics: Pushing the frontier of the optical lattice clock, PhD thesis, University of Colorado, 2013.
  23. V. B. Braginsky, M. L. Gorodetsky, and S. P. Vyatchanin, Phys. Lett. A 264, 1 (1999).
  24. J. Talghader and J. S. Smith, Appl. Phys. Lett. 69, 2608 (1996).
  25. N. Demos and S. Gras (private communication).
  26. G. Venugopalan, F. Salces-Cárcoba, K. Arai, and R. X. Adhikari, Opt. Express 32, 11751 (2024).
  27. M. Notcutt, Personal email to the author regarding material specifications, Stable Laser Systems Supplier Communication (2023).
  28. G. M. Harry, H. Armandula, E. D’Ambrosio, P. Fritschel, M. E. Gustafson, D. R. M. Crooks, J. Hough, S. Rowan, P. Murray, M. Fejer, R. Route, and S. D. Penn, Phys. Rev. D 70, 082003 (2004).
  29. M. Granata, A. Amato, L. Balzarini, M. Canepa, J. Degallaix, D. Forest, V. Dolique, L. Mereni, C. Michel, L. Pinard, B. Sassolas, J. Teillon, and G. Cagnoli, Classical Quantum Gravity 37, 095004 (2020).
  30. D. Heinert, K. Craig, H. Grote, S. Hild, H. Lück, R. Nawrodt, D. A. Simakov, D. V. Vasilyev, S. P. Vyatchanin, and H. Wittel, Phys. Rev. D 90, 042001 (2014).
  31. S. D. Penn, G. M. Harry, A. M. Gretarsson, S. E. Kittelberger, P. R. Saulson, J. J. Schiller, J. R. Smith, and L. Wallace, Classical Quantum Gravity 20, 2917 (2003).
  32. M. Principe, I. M. Pinto, V. Pierro, R. DeSalvo, I. Taurasi, A. E. Villar, E. D. Black, K. G. Libbrecht, C. Michel, N. Morgado, and L. Pinard, Phys. Rev. D 91, 022005 (2015).
  33. A. Amato, G. Cagnoli, M. Canepa, E. Coillet, J. Degallaix, V. Dolique, D. Forest, M. Granata, V. Martinez, C. Michel, L. Pinard, B. Sassolas, and J. Teillon, J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 957, 012006 (2018).
  34. S. Gras and M. Evans, Phys. Rev. D 98, 122001 (2018).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. D 112, 082003– Published 6 October, 2025
  • Received 5 June 2025
  • Accepted 8 August 2025
  • Corrected 12 November 2025
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation