Early technology developments for gravitational-wave instrumentation and wider applications

引力波仪器的早期技术发展和更广泛的应用

• 批准号: ST/X004929/1
• 负责人: Iain Martin
• 金额: $ 24.42万
• 依托单位: University of Glasgow
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FX004929%2F1
• 关键词: Early; technology; developments; gravitational; wave

This equipment proposal is designed to enhance and maintain Glasgow and the UK's ability to stay at the forefront of the R&D of early technology critical in delivering future science goals, both for the core gravitational waves program and wider applications, at a time when the field is in a period of rapid growth. Much of the experimental work funded by our consolidated grant is in the areas of developing suspensions and in designing and measuring improved mirror coatings for the next stages of current detectors as well as for the next generation. We believe that our international competitiveness and overall impact in the field will be significantly enhanced by the purchase and development of state of the art material preparation, fabrication and diagnostic equipment to enhance our development of key technologies.Thus for our suspensions research we are requesting funding for a carbon dioxide laser, providing enhanced capabilities for the precision welding of silica and sapphire fibres to attachments bonded to the sides of test masses. This is an essential technique for the construction of mirror suspension assemblies in gravitational wave detectors, and has wider applications including the construction of components of portable atomic clocks.For our research into mirror coatings and substrates, we are requesting funding for a cryogen-free cryostat for cryogenic studies of the key properties of optical absorption and mechanical loss. Mirror coatings with low optical absorption and low mechanical loss have wider applications in the fields of quantum technology and atomic clocks. This cryostat will also enable studies of the cryogenic mechanical loss of our crystalline suspension fibres being developed for ultra-low noise performance in future gravitational wave detectors. These studies will include tests of laser-welded components fabricated with the CO2 laser requested on this grant. Finally, the cryostat will support our research into precision bonding techniques for use in the construction of the suspended mirrors used in gravitational wave detectors.To support the development and testing of new experimental systems, we request a MOKU Professional multi-instrument system. This system comprises a data logger, arbitrary and specific waveform generators, PID controller, lock-in amplifier, phase meter, spectrum analyser, digital filter algorithms and a dedicated system for laser stabilisation, all controllable through a computer interface. This will provide a highly portable system for diagnostic testing and developing experimental setups, with particular relevance for the development of our cryogenic prototype interferometer system and for the development of actuation and sensing systems for measuring the mechanical loss of mirror coatings and suspension fibres.The basic R&D in sensors for precision measurement enabled using these equipment items has wide-ranging applications in related fields including in applied optics (where our novel research on oxide bonding has enabled advances in high-power solid-state laser performance), and in coatings (where developments driven by the GW field are being adopted to created optical clocks of improved performance).We should note that none of our proposed purchases raises any issues with respect to the UKRI Framework for Responsible Innovation.

该设备提案旨在增强和保持格拉斯哥和英国在早期技术研发方面的能力，这些技术对于实现未来科学目标至关重要，无论是核心引力波计划还是更广泛的应用，都是在该领域处于快速增长时期。由我们的综合赠款资助的大部分实验工作是在开发悬浮液和设计和测量改进的反射镜涂层的下一阶段的电流探测器以及为下一代的领域。我们相信，通过购买和开发最先进的材料制备、制造和诊断设备，以加强我们关键技术的开发，我们在该领域的国际竞争力和整体影响力将得到显著提高。因此，我们正在为我们的悬浮液研究申请二氧化碳激光器的资金，提供了将二氧化硅和蓝宝石纤维精确焊接到结合到测试块侧面的附件的增强能力。这是构建引力波探测器中反射镜悬挂组件的基本技术，并且具有更广泛的应用，包括构建便携式原子钟的组件。对于我们对反射镜涂层和基底的研究，我们正在申请无低温恒温器的资金用于光学吸收和机械损耗关键特性的低温研究。低光学吸收和低机械损耗的反射镜薄膜在量子技术和原子钟等领域有着广泛的应用。这种低温恒温器还将使我们的晶体悬浮纤维的低温机械损失的研究正在开发的超低噪声性能在未来的引力波探测器。这些研究将包括激光焊接组件的测试与CO2激光器制造的要求在这个补助金。最后，低温恒温器将支持我们对精密键合技术的研究，该技术用于引力波探测器中使用的悬挂式反射镜的构造。为了支持新实验系统的开发和测试，我们请求MOKU Professional多仪器系统。该系统包括数据记录器、任意和特定波形发生器、PID控制器、锁定放大器、相位计、频谱分析仪、数字滤波算法和专用激光稳定系统，所有这些都可通过计算机接口进行控制。这将为诊断测试和开发实验装置提供高度便携的系统，特别是与我们的低温原型干涉仪系统的开发以及用于测量反射镜涂层和悬浮纤维的机械损耗的驱动和传感系统的开发相关。使用这些设备项目实现的精密测量传感器的基本研发具有广泛的-在包括应用光学在内的相关领域的广泛应用（我们对氧化物键合的新研究使高功率固态激光器性能取得了进步），在涂料中，（其中GW领域的发展正在被采用，以创建性能改进的光学时钟）我们应该注意到，我们提出的购买没有提出任何关于UKRI负责任创新框架的问题。