Directional radiative cooling thermal compensation for gravitational wave interferometer mirrors
Journal article, 2009

The concept of utilizing directional radiative cooling to correct the problem of thermal lensing in the mirrors of the LIGO/VIRGO gravitational wave detectors has been shown and has prospects for future use. Two different designs utilizing this concept, referred to as the baffled and parabolic mirror solutions, have been proposed with different means of controlling the cooling power. The technique takes advantage of the power naturally radiated by the mirror surfaces at room temperature to prevent their heating by the powerful stored laser beams. The baffled solution has been simulated via COMSOL Multiphysics as a design tool. Finally, the parabolic mirror concept was experimentally validated with the results falling in close agreement with theoretical cooling calculations. The technique of directional radiative thermal correction can be reversed to image heat rings on the mirrors periphery to remotely and dynamically correct their radius of curvature without subjecting the mirror to relevant perturbations. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Thermal compensation

Mirror

Thermal radiation

Lensing

laser-beams

Interferometer

analytical models

Author

Carl Justin Kamp

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Chemical Reaction Engineering

H. Kawamura

Yokoyama Junior High School

R. Passaquieti

University of Pisa

R. DeSalvo

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment

0168-9002 (ISSN)

Vol. 607 3 530-537

Subject Categories

Physical Sciences

DOI

10.1016/j.nima.2009.06.044

More information

Latest update

4/13/2018