Cryogenic Q-factor measurement of optical substrate materials

Upcoming generations of interferometric gravitational wave detectors are likely to be operated at cryogenic temperatures because one of the sensitivity limiting factors of the present generation is the thermal noise of optical components (e.g. end mirrors, cavity couplers, beam splitters). The main contributions to this noise are due to the substrate, the optical coating, and the suspension. The thermal noise can be reduced by cooling to cryogenic temperatures. In addition the overall mechanical quality factor should preferable increase at low temperatures. The experimental details of a new cryogenic apparatus for investigations of the temperature dependency of the Q-factor of several substrate materials in the range of 5 to 300 K are presented. To perform a ring down recording an electrostatic mode excitation of the samples and an interferometric read-out of the amplitude of the vibrations was used.