Fused silica cylindrical shell resonators with 25 million Q factors

Abstract

The Q factors of fused silica cylindrical shell resonators reaching 25 million is reported. The finite element method is employed to analyze the anchor loss and chemical etching is used to reduce the surface loss of cylindrical resonators. Two resonators with the same processing parameters are etched for 13 rounds with each round set as 5 min. After each round of chemical etching, the surface roughness, Q factors and resonant frequencies of the two resonators are measured. The Q factors of the two cylindrical resonators have both exceeded 25 million, reaching the level of that of fused silica hemispherical resonators. Results also indicate that the Q factors of fused silica cylindrical resonators are not related with their surface roughness. This study shows the potential of the cylindrical resonator gyroscope to achieve the same degree of precision as the hemispherical resonator gyroscope, which has presented outstanding performances.