Sapphire mirror for the KAGRA gravitational wave detector

Abstract

KAGRA, the Japanese interferometric gravitational wave detector currently under construction, will employ sapphire test masses for its cryogenic operation. Sapphire has an advantage in its higher thermal conductivity near the operating temperature 20 K compared to fused silica used in other gravitational wave detectors, but there are some uncertain properties for the application such as hardness, optical absorption, and birefringence. We introduce an optical design of the test masses and our recent R&D results to address the above properties. Test polish of sapphire substrate has especially proven that specifications on the surface are sufficiently met. Recent measurements of absorption and inhomogeneity of the refractive index of the sapphire substrate indicate that the other properties are also acceptable to use sapphire crystal as test masses. © 2014 American Physical Society.