Collaborative Research: Center for Coatings Research

合作研究：涂料研究中心

• 批准号: 2309292
• 负责人: Steven Penn
• 金额: $ 12.79万
• 依托单位: Hobart and William Smith Colleges
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2309292&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Center; Coatings

The Center for Coatings Research (CCR) focuses on the development of advanced mirror coatings for gravitational wave detectors, a new and booming field of observational astrophysics. By reducing mechanical loss and thus thermal noise in mirror coatings, the project aims to enhance the sensitivity of Cosmic Explorer (CE), the proposed third generation gravitational wave detector. This research holds significant importance as it expands our understanding of the universe by enabling observations of cosmic events, such as the collision of remnants from the first stars. Moreover, the project has broader impacts on precision measurement technology, benefiting areas like precision timing, quantum information, low noise interferometry, and the search for deviations in the gravitational inverse-square law. The outcomes of this research can also have implications for the semiconductor, laser, and quantum computing communities, as correlations between mechanical loss and other loss mechanisms are explored. Additionally, this collaboration between materials science and gravitational wave communities promotes education and diversity, providing research opportunities for students at different education levels and advancing the participation of women and underrepresented minorities.This project aims to develop mirror coatings that meet the mechanical and optical requirements for implementation in CE. Through extending the length of the interferometer arms from the current 4 km to 20 and/or 40 km systems, CE's observational reach will be significantly expanded. To fully utilize this infrastructure, improvements are necessary in the mirror coatings' mechanical loss and thermal noise reduction. The CCR combines groups working on coating deposition, characterization of atomic structure and macroscopic material properties, and computational modeling. These components are often performed by three diverse communities that work in relative isolation from each other. The strength of the CCR and its promise for accelerating discoveries arises from close integration of these communities focusing on a unified research goal. Since the formation of the CCR in 2017, the collaboration has become a knowledge repository for gravitational wave detector coatings research, making significant progress on all the proposed research directions, including uncovering atomic structural motifs associated with room temperature vs cryogenic mechanical losses, using that understanding to develop Ti:GeO2 coatings that can meet the requirements for Advanced LIGO + (A+). Going forward research efforts include the development of improved amorphous coatings and crystalline AlGaAs coatings. The project will investigate atomic structural motifs associated with mechanical losses at different temperatures, aiming for at least a two-fold reduction in thermal noise compared to Advanced LIGO + coatings. CCR contributions have implications for precision measurement, impacting various fields and potentially benefiting the semiconductor, laser, and quantum computing communities. Overall, this research advances the field of gravitational wave detection, supports education at multiple levels, and promotes diversity within the physical sciences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

涂料研究中心（CCR）着重于为重力波探测器的高级镜面涂料的开发，这是一个新的和蓬勃发展的天体物理学领域。通过减少机械损耗，从而减少镜面涂层中的热噪声，该项目旨在提高宇宙资源管理器（CE）的灵敏度，CES（CE）是拟议的第三代重力波检测器。这项研究非常重要，因为它通过使宇宙事件的观察（例如第一颗恒星的残余物碰撞）扩展了我们对宇宙的理解。此外，该项目对精确测量技术产生了更大的影响，从而使精度时机，量子信息，低噪声干涉法以及在重力逆方法律中寻找偏差等领域。这项研究的结果还可能对半导体，激光和量子计算社区产生影响，因为探索了机械损耗与其他损失机制之间的相关性。此外，材料科学与引力浪潮社区之间的这种合作促进了教育和多样性，为不同教育水平的学生提供研究机会，并推进妇女和代表性不足的少数群体的参与。 CE实施。通过将干涉仪臂的长度从当前的4 km扩展到20和/或40 km系统，CE的观察范围将大大扩展。为了充分利用这种基础设施，在Mirror涂料的机械损失和减少热噪声中需要改进。 CCR结合了研究涂层沉积，原子结构和宏观材料特性的表征以及计算建模的组。这些组成部分通常由三个不同的社区进行，它们相互隔离。 CCR的实力及其对加速发现的承诺源于这些社区的密切整合，这些社区的重点是统一的研究目标。自2017年CCR成立以来，该协作已成为重力波检测器涂层研究的知识存储库，在所有提出的研究方向上取得了重大进展，包括发现与室温与低温机械损失相关的原子结构基准，使用该理解开发Ti：GEO2涂层，可以满足高级LIGO +（A +）的要求。展望的研究工作包括开发改进的无定形涂层和结晶藻类涂料。该项目将研究与不同温度下的机械损失相关的原子结构基序，与晚期的LIGO +涂层相比，热噪声至少降低了两倍。 CCR贡献对精确度量有影响，影响了各个领域，并有可能使半导体，激光和量子计算社区受益。总体而言，这项研究促进了引力波检测领域，支持多个层次的教育，并促进了物理科学内的多样性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响评估来支持的。标准。