@article{2aa96069ecc24d1181da3d0957f8b73c,
title = "Point absorber limits to future gravitational-wave detectors",
abstract = "High-quality optical resonant cavities require low optical loss, typically on the scale of parts per million. However, unintended micron-scale contaminants on the resonator mirrors that absorb the light circulating in the cavity can deform the surface thermoelastically and thus increase losses by scattering light out of the resonant mode. The point absorber effect is a limiting factor in some high-power cavity experiments, for example, the Advanced LIGO gravitational-wave detector. In this Letter, we present a general approach to the point absorber effect from first principles and simulate its contribution to the increased scattering. The achievable circulating power in current and future gravitational-wave detectors is calculated statistically given different point absorber configurations. Our formulation is further confirmed experimentally in comparison with the scattered power in the arm cavity of Advanced LIGO measured by in situ photodiodes. The understanding presented here provides an important tool in the global effort to design future gravitational-wave detectors that support high optical power and thus reduce quantum noise.",
author = "{LIGO Scientific Collaboration} and Wenxuan Jia and Hiroaki Yamamoto and Kevin Kuns and Anamaria Effler and Matthew Evans and Peter Fritschel and R. Abbott and C. Adams and Adhikari, {R. X.} and A. Ananyeva and S. Appert and K. Arai and Areeda, {J. S.} and Y. Asali and Aston, {S. M.} and C. Austin and Baer, {A. M.} and M. Ball and Ballmer, {S. W.} and S. Banagiri and D. Barker and L. Barsotti and J. Bartlett and Berger, {B. K.} and J. Betzwieser and D. Bhattacharjee and G. Billingsley and S. Biscans and Blair, {C. D.} and Blair, {R. M.} and N. Bode and P. Booker and R. Bork and A. Bramley and Brooks, {A. F.} and Brown, {D. D.} and A. Buikema and C. Cahillane and Cannon, {K. C.} and X. Chen and Ciobanu, {A. A.} and F. Clara and Compton, {C. M.} and Cooper, {S. J.} and Corley, {K. R.} and R. Gray and Lundgren, {A. P.} and R. Macas and S. Mozzon and Nuttall, {L. K.}",
note = "Funding Information: The author acknowledges the support of MathWorks Science Fellowship and Sloan Foundation, and thanks The MathWorks, Inc. for its generous computing support. Advanced LIGO was constructed by the California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology with funding from the NSF and operates under Cooperative Agreement No. PHY-1764464. Advanced LIGO was built under Grant No. PHY-0823459. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 American Physical Society.",
year = "2021",
month = dec,
day = "10",
doi = "10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.241102",
language = "English",
volume = "127",
journal = "Physical Review Letters",
issn = "0031-9007",
publisher = "American Physical Society",
number = "24",
}