Understanding and Reducing Thermal Noise via Atomistic Simulations

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). State-of-the-art first-principles quantum mechanical calculations will be used to understand the mechanical properties of dielectric coatings such as Ta2O5. Mechanical properties affect thermal noise in materials that can limit the performance of ultra high-precision interferometers, such those employed in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), or the frequency stability of cavity-stabilized laser systems. Advanced LIGO, the next major upgrade of LIGO now under construction, is expected to be limited by thermal noise in the most critical 50-150 Hz band while the performance of several state-of-the-art frequency stabilization systems is limited by thermal noise at frequencies as low as a few Hz. It is of general, societal importance to design dielectric coatings with desired properties. The proposed research activities have applications in many high precision optical measurements far beyond LIGO, for example, time and frequency measurements. The computational approach that characterizes materials will also be useful in a variety other areas such as nano-scale science, material science, and bio-science. The project will also provide rigorous training for graduate students in computational physics.