LIGO Seminar

The substance of which optics are made is pivotal to the design of a GWinterferometer. Fused silica is the substance of choice in today'sdetectors, as it has been for decades.  But future designs call for better-performing mirrors made from new materials.  Crystalline silicon is proposed as the material for test masses in the LIGO Voyager upgrade. I'll discuss reasons why silicon looks promising to us, requirements for adopting it, and lab tests of its properties and performance.

We plan to broadcast these talks using TeamSpeak. Use a sub-channel of
LIGO Lab called "LIGO Seminar", which is not password protected.
NOTE: These and all other scheduled LIGO seminars are listed on the LIGO
Laboratory seminar calendar for convenient reference.