Measurements of a low-temperature mechanical dissipation peak in a single layer of Ta_2O_5 doped with TiO_2

Creators: Martin, I.; Armandula, H.; Comtet, C.; Fejer, M. M.; Gretarsson, A.; Harry, G.; Hough, J.; Mackowski, J.-M. M.; MacLaren, I.; Michel, C.; Montorio, J.-L.; Morgado, N.; Nawrodt, R.; Penn, S.; Reid, S.; Remillieux, A.; Route, R.; Rowan, S.; Schwarz, C.; Seidel, P.; Vodel, W.; Zimmer, A.

Abstract

Thermal noise arising from mechanical dissipation in oxide coatings is a major limitation to many precision measurement systems, including optical frequency standards, high-resolution optical spectroscopy and interferometric gravity wave detectors. Presented here are measurements of dissipation as a function of temperature between 7 K and 290 K in ion-beam-sputtered Ta2O5 doped with TiO2, showing a loss peak at 20 K. Analysis of the peak provides the first evidence of the source of dissipation in doped Ta2O5 coatings, leading to possibilities for the reduction of thermal noise effects.

Additional Information

© Institute of Physics and IOP Publishing Limited 2008. Received 13 November 2007, in final form 14 January 2008. Published 12 February 2008. Print publication: Issue 5 (7 March 2008). This is an Editor's Choice article. This work was supported by STFC and the University of Glasgow, the NSF through grants NSF PHY-0140297 (Stanford), NSF 0601135 (Embry-Riddle) and NSF PHY-0355118 (Hobart and William Smith Colleges) and the German science foundation (DFG) under SFB Transregio 7. We also wish to thank the ILIAS Strega project and Leverhulme Trust for support. The LIGO Observatories were constructed by Caltech and MIT with funding from the NSF under cooperative agreement PHY-9210038. The LIGO Laboratory operates under PHY-0107417.

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