Optical absorption measurement at 1550 nm on a highly-reflective Si/SiO 2 coating stack

DOI10.1088/0264-9381/31/10/105005zbMATH Open1291.83093arXiv1401.4916OpenAlexW2051916405WikidataQ59450841 ScholiaQ59450841MaRDI QIDQ4979709FDOQ4979709

Authors: Jessica Steinlechner, Alexander Khalaidovski, Roman Schnabel 

Publication date: 19 June 2014

Published in: Classical and Quantum Gravity (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Future laser-interferometric gravitational wave detectors (GWDs) will potentially employ test mass mirrors from crystalline silicon and a laser wavelength of $1550,mnm$, which corresponds to a photon energy below the silicon bandgap. Silicon might also be an attractive high-refractive index material for the dielectric mirror coatings. Films of amorphous silicon (a-Si), however, have been found to be significantly more absorptive at $1550,mnm$ than crystalline silicon (c-Si). Here, we investigate the optical absorption of a Si/SiO${}_2$ dielectric coating produced with the ion plating technique. The ion plating technique is distinct from the standard state-of-the-art ion beam sputtering technique since it uses a higher processing temperature of about 250${}^{c}irc$C, higher particle energies, and generally results in higher refractive indices of the deposited films. Our coating stack was fabricated for a reflectivity of $R=99.95,\mathrm{\%}$ for s-polarized light at $1550,mnm$ and for an angle of incidence of 44${}^{c}irc$. We used the photothermal self-phase modulation technique to measure the coating absorption in s-polarization and p-polarization. We obtained $alph{a}_s^{mcoat}=(1035pm42),mppm$ and $alph{a}_p^{mcoat}=(1428pm97),mppm$. These results correspond to an absorption coefficient which is lower than literature values for a-Si which vary from $100,m/cm$ up to $2000,m/cm$. It is, however, still orders of magnitude higher than expected for c-Si and thus still too high for GWD applications.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1401.4916

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zbMATH Keywords

optical absorption\(\mathrm{Si}/ \mathrm{SiO}_2\)mirror coatings

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Gravitational waves (83C35)

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