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gravitational waves

LIGO:

Laser

Interferometer

Gravitational-Wave

Observatory

LIGO exemplifies extreme engineering and technology. LIGO consists of:

Two “blind” L-shaped detectors with 4 km long vacuum chambers
situated 3000 kilometers apart operating in unison
to measure a motion 10,000 times smaller than an atomic nucleus (the smallest measurement ever attempted by science)
caused by the most violent and cataclysmic events in the Universe
occurring tens-of-millions or billions of light years away!

Most sensitive: At its most sensitive state, LIGO will be able to detect a change in distance between its mirrors 1/10,000th the width of a proton! This is equivalent to measuring the distance to the nearest star (some 4.2 light years away) to an accuracy smaller than the width of a human hair.

ligo.caltech.edu

LIGO Optics Working Group (OWG)

"NOISES" are LIGO's biggest challenge. Among various noise sources, coating Brownian noise (CBN) is limiting the detector's sensitivity right at the most critical detection band.

The short-term goal for akk LIGO Optics Working Group (OWG) members is to find a new material that can reduce CBN by factor of 2 for the A+LIGO upgrade.

Atomic structure characterization plays a key part of the research model for that journey. With close collaboration with Stanford University, Center for Coatings Research (CCR), and LIGO OWG, we are targeting to finalize the A+LIGO coating material within few years.