Speaker
Description
The Einstein Telescope (ET) will be a third generation gravitational wave detector consisting of a set of low frequency and a high frequency interferometers. In order to mitigate thermal noise, the mirrors for the low frequency interferometer are required to be cooled down to cryo temperatures. This leads to freezing of residual gas from the vacuum chamber onto the mirror surface. This will affect the required cooling power and the sensitivity of ET. Hence R&D measurements at cryogenic temperatures are being prepared, investigating the formation of ice layers on the mirror from different gases using ellipsometry and quartz micro balances (QMB) for monitoring the thickness of the layer. Further research will include the testing of different in-situ cleaning procedures of silicon surfaces with methods, such as argon plasma cleaning low-energy electrons or UV light. The poster will show the setup being prepared at KIT and describes methods developed together with several groups in the ET collaboration.