“Tailoring medium range order in amorphous oxides for coatings of gravitational wave interferometers”
Carmen S. Menoni
Monday, February 28th at 4:00pm
Glassy amorphous oxides are fascinating materials in that their amorphous nature provides for enormous functionality. Amorphous oxides are ubiquitous in optics as they are transparent over a broad wavelength range spanning from the near ultraviolet to near infrared. In thin film form, vapor deposited amorphous oxides are the building blocks of interference coatings found in most optical systems. The suitable combination of a low refractive index material, as SiO2, and a high refractive index material, as Ta2O5, makes it possible to tailor the optical response of interference coatings to the application. State-of-the-art interference coatings with absorption loss of parts per million at near infrared wavelengths are routine [1]. [Read more…]
