Optical absorption in bulk crystalline silicon

as well as in the crystal surfaces

Alexander Khalaidovski1, Jessica Steinlechner2, Roman Schnabel2

1: Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR) 2: Albert Einstein Institute

The University of Tokyo Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics
http://www.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ Institute for Gravitational Physics of the Leibniz University Hannover
http://www.qi.aei-hannover.de

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption

KAGRAinface-2-face
bulk crystalline
meeting 富山大学
silicon– and – August
in the crystal surfaces 1
3rd 2013
 Outline

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 2
 Motivation – Einstein Telescope (ET)

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 3
 Motivation – ET Low Frequency Interferometer

 Low frequency interferometer: cryogenic temperature (10 K)

 Conventional fused silica optics no longer usable

 Use crystalline silicon

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 4
 Properties of crystalline silicon

 High Q-factor at both room temperature and cryogenic temperatures

Credits: Ronny Nawrodt

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 5
 Properties of crystalline silicon

 High Q-factor at both room temperature and cryogenic temperatures

 Available in large diameters (currently about 450mm – 500mm)

Source: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2010/10/20/global-foundries-gtc-2010/4
Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 6
 Properties of crystalline silicon

 High Q-factor at both room temperature and cryogenic temperatures

 Available in large diameters (currently about 450mm – 500mm)

 Completely opaque at 1064 nm, but ...

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 7
 Properties of crystalline silicon

 High Q-factor at both room temperature and cryogenic temperatures

 Available in large diameters (currently about 450mm – 500mm)

 Completely opaque at 1064 nm, but ...

 ... expected to have very low optical absorption at 1550 nm

?
Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 8
 Properties of crystalline silicon

 High Q-factor at both room temperature and cryogenic temperatures

 Available in large diameters (currently about 450mm – 500mm)

 Completely opaque at 1064 nm, but ...

 ... expected to have very low optical absorption at 1550 nm

 currently chosen as candidate material for ET-LF test masses

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 9
 Properties of crystalline silicon

 High Q-factor at both room temperature and cryogenic temperatures

 Available in large diameters (currently about 450mm – 500mm)

 Completely opaque at 1064 nm, but ...

 ... expected to have very low optical absorption at 1550 nm

 currently chosen as candidate material for ET-LF test masses

 we need to confirm low optical absorption at RT and CT

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 10
 Optical absorption measurements
at the AEI Hannover

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 11
 Photo-thermal self-phase modulation

Lcavity
substrate
Lcavity

Thermal effect
increases with
• Increasing Dr. Jessica
power Steinlechner
• Decreasing
scan frequency

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 12
 Photo-thermal self-phase modulation

 Absorption leads to a heating of the analyzed substrate and thus (for a

sum of the thermo-refractive index dn/dT and the thermal expansion
coefficient  > 0 ) to a thermally induced optical expansion.

 When the substrate is placed in an optical cavity and the cavity length is
scanned, this thermal expansion affects the detected cavity resonance peaks
in a different way for an increase and a decrease of the cavity length.

 An external increase of the cavity length and the thermally-induced

expansion act in the same direction, resulting in a faster scan over the
resonance and thus in a narrowing of the resonance peak.

 In contrast, an external cavity length decrease and the thermally-induced

expansion partly compensate. As a result, the scan over the resonance is
effectively slower, leading to a broader resonance peak.

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 13
 Photo-thermal self-phase modulation
Advantages
 Suitable to measure absorption in bulk and coatings

 High sensitivity (sub-ppm), small error bars

 Does not require high laser power

Drawbacks

 Thermal effect visible not at all laser powers

 Requires a cavity setup around the sample
(can be the sample itself with dielectric coatings)

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 14
 More about the method

(Journal: Applied Optics)

(Journal: Applied Optics)

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 15
 Silicon absorption at 1550 nm
-
measurement at a fixed optical power

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 16
 Measurement setup
Monolithic Si cavity
 Length 65mm, diameter 100 mm.

 Curved end surfaces, ROC = 1m.

 Specific resistivity 11 kcm (boron)

 Coatings: SiO2/Ta2O5. R = 99.96 %.

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 17
 Measurement results are …

α = (264 ± 39) ppm/cm

or 3430 ppm/round trip

Measurement Number
Result of a single Measurement Mean value + error bar

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 18
 … much higher than expected

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 19
 Measurements by the LMA group

Using beam deflection method

[J. Degallaix, 4th ET symposium, Dec. 2012]

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 20
 Silicon absorption at 1550 nm
-
power-dependent measurements

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 21
 Facts about the measurement

 Same monolithic cavity as in previous setup

 Intra-cavity peak intensity: 0.4 W/cm² - 21 kW/cm²

 Impedance-mismatch measurement

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 22
 Results

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 23
 Discussion

I) Non-linear dependence of absorption on optical intensity

 Results by Degallaix et al. qualitatively confirmed

 Reason: probably two-photon absorption, quantitative analysis in progress

II) Our results are still much higher than the for other groups

 Main differences:
- material purities (difference not too large)
- measurement approach. Our approach is sensitive to absorption in
both the bulk crystal and the surfaces.

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 24
 Possible reason

 Surface layer of amorphous silicon

 Literature absorption values: ca. 100/cm – 2000/cm

 High a-Si absorption verified in a different experiment measuring Si/SiO2

dielectric coatings.

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 25
 Possible implications

 Absorption contribution of about 800 ppm per surface transmission

 1600 ppm for transmission through input test mass (ITM)

 Absorbed laser power needs to be extracted through the suspensions

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 26
 Outlook

 Planned measurements:
- Analysis of samples of different length
- Analysis of samples of different purity, Czochralski and Float Zone

 Analysis of the surfaces in view of a possible layer of amorphous material

 Comparison with other groups, exchange of samples

 Measurements at cryogenic temperatures (Jena)

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 27
 Conclusions

 High absorption was found in Si-samples at the AEI

 Such a high absorption contribution is neither expected from the bulk

crystal, nor could it be confirmed by beam deflection measurements

 The absorption probably originates in the crystal surfaces, possibly due to

a layer of amorphous material generated during polishing

 Further measurements are required to clearly separate the bulk and

surface contributions and to evaluate a possible impact on ET

Thank you very much

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 28
 Discussion II

(a) Our data

(b) LMA data with added offset of 250 ppm/cm

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 29
 Absorption measurement approaches

Power-Measurement
• Power detection before and behind
substrate (photo diode, power
meter,…)
• Simplest absorption measurement
method
• Not very sensitive

Beam-deflection measurement
• Pump beam heats substrate
• Probe beam is deflected by thermal
lens
• Deflection measurement on quadrant
photo diode
• Possible limit: available laser power

Aleksandr Khalaidovski Absorption in bulk crystalline silicon and in the crystal surfaces 30