The effects of heating on mechanical loss in tantala/silica optical coatings

Second-generation interferometric gravitational-wave detectors will operate at temperatures noticeably above room temperature. Study was done to determine what effect elevated temperatures would have on the Q and coating thermal noise of the detector mirrors. Results show that increased temperature increases loss angle in a manner that is more significant at higher frequencies. Trends show that the increased temperature will have a negligible effect at the low (100 Hz) frequencies important to second-generation detectors.