Optical scattering measurements and implications on thermal noise in Gravitational Wave detectors test-mass coatings

Photographs of the LIGO Gravitational Wave detector mirrors illuminated by the standing beam were analyzed with an astronomical software tool designed to identify stars within images, which extracted hundreds of thousands of point-like scatterers uniformly distributed across the mirror surface, likely distributed through the depth of the coating layers. The sheer number of the observed scatterers implies a fundamental, thermodynamic origin during deposition or processing. These scatterers are a possible source of the mirror dissipation and thermal noise foreseen by V. Braginsky and Y. Levin, which limits the sensitivity of observatories to Gravitational Waves. This study may point the way towards the production of mirrors with reduced thermal noise and an increased detection range.     

Experimental study of thermal noise caused by an inhomogeneously distributed loss

The thermal fluctuation of a mechanical system with an inhomogeneously distributed loss was measured to prove the invalidity of the normal-mode expansion method which is commonly used to calculate the thermal noise of mechanical oscillators. The measured spectrum is inconsistent with the modal expansion model, while they agree well with an evaluation obtained by applying the fluctuation-dissipation theorem to the measured mechanical response. These are the first experimental results which show that mode expansion is invalid.     

Thin walled Nb tubes for suspending test masses in interferometric gravitational wave detectors

In a previous Letter, we have shown that the use of orthogonal ribbons could provide a better mirror suspension technique in interferometric gravitational wave antennas. One of the key improvements presented by the orthogonal ribbon is the reduction in the number of violin string modes in the direction of the laser. We have considered more elaborate geometries in recent simulations and obtained a suspension that provides further reduction in the number of violin string modes in the direction of the laser, as well as in the direction orthogonal to the laser. This thin walled niobium tube suspension exhibits a reduction in the number of violin modes to 5 in each direction up to a frequency of 5 kHz. Furthermore, the violin mode thermal noise peaks can be reduced in amplitude by 30 dB.     

热噪声对约瑟夫森结I-V特性及微波感应台阶的影响研究

采用数值仿真的方法研究了热噪声对约瑟夫森结I-V特性及微波感应台阶的影响。研究表明,热噪声导致约瑟夫森结的I-V特性曲线呈现"圆拱化",也使得微波感应台阶高度减小。得出了取不同约瑟夫森结临界电流和结电阻时,热噪声对台阶的影响规律     

红外连续激光反射镜热畸变的有限元分析

 基于热传导方程和热弹方程，利用有限元分析方法，就光斑尺寸远大于或接近于基底材料热扩散长度的情况以及反射镜在固定或自由的边界条件下，分别计算了硅和石英两种基底材料多层膜红外连续激光反射镜的最大温升、最大形变及最大热应力，并探讨了它们随光斑尺寸的变化规律。结果表明：在自由边界条件下，反射镜表面的最大轴向位移与光斑半径之间近似为线性关系；而在固定边界条件下，反射镜的最大热应力与光斑半径之间近似为线性关系；反射镜的夹持状态对最大轴向位移及最大热应力的影响随着光斑尺寸的增加而增强；在相同的入射激光光源及相同的边界条件下，硅镜具有较低的温升值或较高的抗热损伤阈值，而石英镜具有较好的抗热畸变特性。     

Re-evaluation of the mechanical loss factor of hydroxide-catalysis bonds and its significance for the next generation of gravitational wave detectors

New measurements of the mechanical loss factors of hydroxide-catalysis bonds have been made and these have been found to be significantly lower than previously reported. We provide the first estimate for the resulting thermal noise limitation for a practical test mass geometry for next generation gravitational wave detectors.     

A comprehensive study of the chromatic dispersion measurement of the multi-channel fiber Bragg grating based on an asymmetrical Sagnac loop interferometer

A novel all-fiber asymmetrical Sagnac loop interferometer (ASLI) is proposed to measure the chromatic dispersion of a multi-channel fiber Bragg grating (FBG). Theoretical analyses to this proposed approach are presented in details. With this method, the chromatic dispersion and dispersion slope of a 51-channel FBG are simultaneously measured. The experimental results agree well with the ones obtained by using the general phase-shift method (PSM). This method has the advantages of simple configuration, low-cost, and high tolerance for the characteristics of FBG.     

平行光栅对在刻线不平行时的色散研究

 利用三维空间光线追迹法，分析了啁啾脉冲放大系统中的压缩光栅对，在刻线不平行而光栅面平行时光的衍射特性。导出了此时光通过光栅对的群延时，数值计算了系统2阶和3阶色散量，以及这些色散量在光栅对严格平行时的相对误差。得出了中心波长光的接收位置相对于光栅对严格平行时的偏移量，并且分析了它与入射角的变化关系。     

Enhancement of light-emitting efficiency using combined plasmonic Ag grating and dielectric grating

Based on the analysis of the near-field evanescent wave in total internal reflection, the flip-chip light-emitting diode (LED) structure was proposed by placing a plasmonic Ag grating and a perforated sapphire grating in the substrate. The finite difference time domain (FDTD) method has been applied to study the spectral properties of the hybrid structure and the enhancement factor of light extraction efficiency of the LED model. From the computation examples, the effects of structure parameters on the extraction enhancement have been investigated. The results indicate that the plasmonic grating can enhance the near-field evanescent wave and couple it to propagation wave in the specific wavelength bands, which leads to the photons emitting out of the LED chip with high extraction efficiency. Due to the combined gratings used, the enhancement factor of the light extraction efficiency can reach approximately 4 times at a relatively longer wavelength.     

Laser Stabilisation for the Measurement of Thermal Noise

In order to measure the thermal noise of a mirror suspended in a vacuum it is necessary for the length measurement error due to intensity and frequency noise of the probe laser to be reduced below the thermal noise level. Here we report on an experiment to reduce the frequency and intensity noise of a 40mW Nd:YAG laser for this purpose. The frequency is stabilised using the standard reflection locking technique. To stabilise the laser intensity a technique which uses the properties of an in loop light field has been developed. This technique is capable of suppressing the intensity noise below the shot noise limit without reducing the useful laser power. A servo based on this technique has been designed and tested. The experimental results indicate that the laser noise can be reduced to a level which will allow a displacement sensitivity of 1.5 × 10^-19m/ Hz for the detection of thermal noise in a frequency band of 10 to 500Hz.     

COmplex-Model-Based Estimation of thermal noise for fMRI data in the presence of artifacts

Due to the presence of artifacts induced by fast-imaging acquisition in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, it is very difficult to estimate the variance of thermal noise by traditional methods in magnitude images. Moreover, the existence of incidental phase fluctuations impairs the validity of currently available solutions based on complex datasets. In this article, a time-domain model is proposed to generalize the analysis of complex datasets for nonbrain regions by incorporating artifacts and phase fluctuations. Based on this model, a novel estimation schema has been developed to find an appropriate set of voxels in nonbrain regions according to their levels of artifact and phase fluctuation. In addition, noise intensity from these voxels is estimated. The whole schema is named COmplex-Model-Based Estimation (COMBE). Theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed COMBE method provides a better estimation of thermal noise in fMRI studies compared with previously proposed methods and suggest that the new method can adapt to a broader range of applications, such as functional connectivity studies, evaluation of sequence designs and reconstruction schemas.     

A study on the action of non-Gaussian noise on a Brownian particle

We analytically address the non-equilibrium problem of a Brownian particle in contact with a thermal reservoir by means of a non-Gaussian Langevin noise term η(t)$\eta \left(t\right)$. The presence of noise kurtosis is akin to a second temperature reservoir acting on the system, and we exploit its consequences by means of studying a converging exact form for the stationary probability distribution.     

强激光反射镜热畸变对光束传输特性的影响

 通过等效净吸收功率密度方法获取了强激光反射镜热畸变的干涉图像，提出了热畸变反射镜在平面波照射下近场波面畸变与远场光斑的计算方法，探讨了强激光远场光斑测试的一种新思路。定量分析结果表明，对单晶硅镜，在净吸收功率210W，光照时间为6s时，最大热畸变达到0.76μm，由此造成的近场波面Zernike离焦系数为0.32μm，x方向和y方向彗差分别为0.13μm和0.22μm， x方向倾斜系数上升到0.12μm，光束质量因子达5.7。     

Influence of turbulence on train noise

The subject of this paper is the long distance propagation of train noise. The sound exposure level of train noise L_AE was measured. To describe the results of measurements, a semi-analytical model was used. It takes into account the wave-front divergence, air absorption, ground effect, and the turbulence destroying the coherent nature of the ground effect. The model contains three adjustable parameters that must be estimated at the site. To verify the model, we performed measurements of L_AE at the distance D = 450 m from the train track center. The difference between the calculated and measured mean values of L_AE equals 1.3 dB.     

平面光学镜低温温度场和热变形分析方法

在综合分析了温度场和热变形理论分析方法的基础上,提出了对空间光学系统中平面光学反射镜进行有限元分析具体方法;介绍了温度场特性经典理论,并对径向温度分布遵循二次规律的表达式作了简单推导;同时介绍了温度变化引起光学表面的Zern ike多项式法和用热力矩分析平面圆形板面形的方法;最后给出了用ANSYS和I-DEAS软件对联合光学元件热变形的计算流程。     

Brownian motors: Joint effect of non-Gaussian noise and time asymmetric forcing

Previous works have shown that time asymmetric forcing on the one hand, as well as non-Gaussian noises on the other, can separately enhance the efficiency and current of a Brownian motor. Here, we study the result of subjecting a Brownian motor to both effects simultaneously. Our results have been compared with those obtained for the Gaussian white noise regime in the adiabatic limit. We find that, although the inclusion of the time asymmetry parameter increases the efficiency value up to a certain extent, for the present case this increase is much less appreciable than in the white noise case. We also present a comparative study of the transport coherence in the context of colored noise. Though the efficiency in some cases becomes higher for the non-Gaussian case, the Péclet number is always higher in the Gaussian colored noise case than in the white noise as well as non-Gaussian colored noise cases.     

Application of thermal wave imaging and phase shifting method for defect detection in Stainless steel

This paper presents an experimental arrangement for detection of artificial subsurface defects in a stainless steel sample by means of thermal wave imaging with lock-in thermography and consequently, the impact of excitation frequency on defect detectability. The experimental analysis was performed at several excitation frequencies to observe the sample beginning from 0.18 Hz all the way down to 0.01 Hz. The phase contrast between the defective and sound regions illustrates the qualitative and quantitative investigation of defects. The two, three, four and five-step phase shifting methods are investigated to obtain the information on defects. A contrast to noise ratio analysis was applied to each phase shifting method allowing the choice of the most appropriate one. Phase contrast with four-step phase shifting at an optimum frequency of 0.01 Hz provides excellent results. The inquiry with the effect of defect size and depth on phase contrast shows that phase contrast decreases with increase in defect depth and increases with the increase in defect size.     

Effect of material spatial dispersion in the degree of polarization of thermal radiation emitted by a spherical source

The influence of material spatial dispersion in the degree of polarization emitted by a metallic sphere is studied by means of fluctuational electrodynamics. The corresponding cross-spectral correlation functions of the electric field are calculated on a basis of a non-local scattering T-matrix for a spherical scatterer and for non-local dielectric functions for the metal such as those provided by the hydrodynamic model and the Lindhard theory. It is shown that the main effect of the material spatial dispersion is a blue shift of the spectra of the degree of polarization which, however, diminishes as the sphere size increases. Also, at the bulk plasma frequency, a local maximum of the degree of polarization emerges as a result of the excitation of bulk plasmons which is not evident when a local dielectric function is assumed.     

Macroscopic polarization and thermal conductivity of GaN

We theoretically investigated the effect of macroscopic polarization (sum of spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization) on the thermal conductivity of wurtzite GaN. Macroscopic polarization contributes to the effective elastic constant of the GaN and thus modifies the phonon group velocity. We used the revised phonon velocity to estimate the Debye frequency and temperature. Different phonon scattering rates were calculated as functions of the phonon frequency. The thermal conductivity of GaN was estimated using revised parameters such as the phonon velocity and phonon relaxation rate. The revised thermal conductivity at room temperature increased from 250 to 279 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ due to macroscopic polarization. The method we developed can be used for thermal budget calculations for GaN optoelectronic devices.     

光学频率梳非线性传输及其在相位噪声探测中的应用

光纤传递链路中相位噪声探测是基于光纤的精确射频标准传递系统中重要组成部分。为解决光纤链路相位噪声探测中节点反射干扰的问题, 本文基于广义非线性薛定谔方程, 理论上研究了窄带光学频率梳在色散位移光纤中的非线性光学传播特性。在理论分析的基础上, 结合密集波分复用架构, 提出了一种基于锁模光学频率梳进行光纤传递射频信号的相位噪声探测新技术, 克服了节点反射干扰, 给出了初步实验验证。