Enhanced Instrumentation for Gravitational Wave Research

我们在这里提出的设备升级旨在保持格拉斯哥和英国保持在R& D在该领域处于快速发展时期的时候，实现未来科学目标至关重要。我们的综合拨款资助的大部分实验工作都是在开发下一代探测器的低温硅悬浮液以及设计和测量改进的反射镜涂层方面。电流检测器的下一阶段以及下一代。为此，我们相信，通过购买和开发最先进的测量、诊断和材料制备设备，我们在该领域的国际竞争力和整体影响力将得到显著增强。因此，对于我们的粘合和涂层研究，我们正在申请资助红外相机，该相机可以检查粘合的硅界面，否则视觉上无法访问，并支持在未来检测器需要涂层操作的波长下表征涂层的散射特性。对于我们的悬浮研究，我们正在申请资助一个便携式等离子体源，它可以在开放的实验室中运行，以允许开发用于必须粘合在一起的悬浮元件表面的活化技术。这应该允许更高质量和更低损耗的键合，并导致减少引力波探测器中最重要的噪声源之一-来自悬浮液本身和反射镜基板的热噪声。为了使所有准整体结构具有超低的机械损失，从而实现低热噪声，表面质量在粗糙度和形状方面都是至关重要的。因此，我们请求Polytec提供Microview干涉表面轮廓仪的资金，这将使我们能够大大改进表面诊断。我们应该注意，我们的拟议采购没有提出任何关于UKRI负责任创新框架的问题

Our equipment upgrade proposed here is designed to maintain Glasgow and the UK's ability to stay at the forefront of the R&D critical in delivering future science goals at a time when the field is in a period of rapid growth.Much of the experimental work funded by our consolidate grant is in the areas of developing cryogenic silicon suspensions for the next generation of detectors and in designing and measuring improved mirror coatings for the next stages of current detectors as well as for the next generation. To this end 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 measurement, diagnostic and material preparation equipment. Thus for our bonding and coating research we are requesting funding for an infra-red camera which can enable inspection of bonded silicon interfaces which are otherwise visually inaccessible and support characterisation of scattering properties of coatings at wavelengths where the coatings for future detectors will be required to operate. For our suspension research we are requesting funding for a portable plasma source which can operate in the open laboratory to allow development of activation techniques for the surfaces of the suspension elements which have to be bonded together. This should allow bonds of higher quality and lower loss and lead to the reduction of one of the most important noise sources in gravitational wave detectors - thermal noise from the suspensions themselves and from the mirror substrates. For all quasi-monolithic construction to have ultra low mechanical loss, allowing low thermal noise, surface quality is of the utmost importance both in terms of roughness and figure. Thus we are requesting funding for a Microview interferometric surface profiler from Polytec which should allow us much improved surface diagnostics.We should note that none of our proposed purchases raises any issues with respect to the UKRI Framework for Responsible Innovation