Sapphire mirror for the KAGRA gravitational wave detector

Document #:

LIGO-P1400005-v1

Document type:

P - Publications

Abstract:

KAGRA, 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 optical design of the test masses and our recent R&D results to address the above properties. Especially, test-polish of sapphire substrate has proven that specications on the surface are suciently met. Recent measurements of absorption and inhomogeneity of refractive index of the sapphire substrate indicate that the other properties are also acceptable to use sapphire crystal as the test masses.

Files in Document:

• Sapphire mirror for KAGRA (LIGO-P1400005-v1.pdf, 1.3 MB)

Topics:

• Core Optics

Authors:

• Eiichi Hirose
• Hiro Yamamoto
• GariLynn Billingsley

Keywords:

KAGRA Sapphire test mass path finder