Speaker
Description
A crucial milestone was recently completed in the IGR in the form of the
first silicon suspension hanging on Hydroxide catalysis bonds and
surviving cooling to cryogenics temperatures. Although the prototype
allowed to validate multiple engineering concepts, it is expected that
HCB won't meet the thermal noise requirements for the 3rd generation of
gravitational waves detectors. For this reason, the focus is now placed
on improving the bonding technique, and particularly on investigating
direct bonding. A range of surface activation processes is studied with
the help of a brand-new surface profiler to correlate surface property
and bond quality. Bonded samples are prepared for strength and
mechanical loss measurements. The testing processes have had to be
re-thought to fit the new geometry used, and preliminary results on the
effect of pre and post-processing are obtained.
