Speaker
Kyung Ha Lee
(University of Glasgow)
Description
To increase the sensitivity of the current interferometric gravitational wave detectors,
an upgrade plan for the US based detectors, or “Advanced LIGO (aLIGO),” is being
studied. As part of this upgrade, changing the mass, stress, and length of the suspension for
the mirrors in the interferometers is considered to improve noise sources. From the previous
year’s Matlab modeling result, the higher stress in the fibre and the longer last stage showed
improvements in the detector’s sensitivity. Since the last stage of the suspension is held by
fused silica fibres, which have very low loss to minimise suspension thermal noise, one of the
challenges for this upgrade will be producing thinner and longer fibres that can hold the test
mass safely. In this report, the impact laser stabilisation on fused silica fibres’ geometry and
strength is being investigated to allow further improvements on fibre production to achieve
aLIGO upgrades.
Primary author
Kyung Ha Lee
(University of Glasgow)
Co-authors
Dr
Alan Cumming
(University of Glasgow)
Dr
Giles Hammond
(University of Glasgow)
Prof.
James Hough
(University of Glasgow)
Mr
Russell Jones
(University of Glasgow)
Ms
Sheila Rowan
(University of Glasgow)
