RESUMEN
The sensitivity of current and planned gravitational wave interferometric detectors is limited, in the most critical frequency region around 100 Hz, by a combination of quantum noise and thermal noise. The latter is dominated by Brownian noise: thermal motion originating from the elastic energy dissipation in the dielectric coatings used in the interferometer mirrors. The energy dissipation is a material property characterized by the mechanical loss angle. We have identified mixtures of titanium dioxide (TiO_{2}) and germanium dioxide (GeO_{2}) that show internal dissipations at a level of 1×10^{-4}, low enough to provide improvement of almost a factor of 2 on the level of Brownian noise with respect to the state-of-the-art materials. We show that by using a mixture of 44% TiO_{2} and 56% GeO_{2} in the high refractive index layers of the interferometer mirrors, it would be possible to achieve a thermal noise level in line with the design requirements. These results are a crucial step forward to produce the mirrors needed to meet the thermal noise requirements for the planned upgrades of the Advanced LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) and Virgo detectors.
RESUMEN
We demonstrate the generation of 1.1 J pulses of picosecond duration at 1 kHz repetition rate (1.1 kW average power) from a diode-pumped chirped pulse amplification Yb:YAG laser. The laser employs cryogenically cooled amplifiers to generate λ=1030nm pulses with average power of up to 1.26 kW prior to compression with excellent beam quality. Pulses are compressed to 4.5 ps duration with 90% efficiency. This compact picosecond laser will enable a variety of applications that require high energy ultrashort pulses at kilohertz repetition rates.
RESUMEN
A λ=515nm laser generating joule-level pulses at 1 kHz repetition rate was demonstrated by frequency doubling 1.2 J, 2 ns temporally shaped square pulses from a cryogenically cooled Yb:YAG laser in an LBO crystal. A doubling efficiency of 78% resulted in 0.94 J second-harmonic pulses at 1 kHz. The unconverted light interacted with a second LBO crystal to generate >100mJ second-harmonic pulses to reach a total green average power of 1.04 kW. A conversion efficiency of 89% was achieved for 0.58 J green pulses at 1 kHz. These results open the possibility to pump high energy femtosecond lasers at kilohertz repetition rates.
RESUMEN
The importance of high intensity few- to single-cycle laser pulses for applications such as intense isolated attosecond pulse generation is constantly growing, and with the breakdown of the monochromatic approximation in field ionization models, the few-cycle pulse (FCP) interaction with solids near the damage threshold has ushered a new paradigm of nonperturbative light-matter interaction. In this Letter, we systematically study and contrast how femtosecond laser-induced damage and ablation behaviors of SiO2/HfO2-based reflective multilayer dielectric thin film systems vary between FCP and 110 fs pulses. With time-resolved surface microscopy and ex situ analysis, we show that there are distinct differences in the interaction depending on the pulse duration, specifically in the "blister" morphology formation at lower fluences (damage) as well as in the dynamics of debris formation at higher fluences (ablation).
RESUMEN
High mechanical stress can affect the performance of multilayer thin film optical coatings, causing wavefront aberrations. This is particularly important if the multilayer stack is deposited onto thin substrates, such as those used in adaptive optics. Stress in thin film coatings is dependent on the deposition process, and ion beam sputtering (IBS) thin films are known to have high compressive stress. In the present work, we show that stress in IBS $ {{\rm SiO}_2} $SiO2 thin films can be reduced from 490 MPa to 48 MPa using high-energy $ {{\rm O}_2} $O2 assist ion bombardment during deposition while maintaining high optical quality. A comparison of the reduction of stress in $ {{\rm SiO}_2} $SiO2 deposited from oxide and metal targets is provided.