arXiv subjects

Nobuhiro Kimura

Publications and source records attributed to Nobuhiro Kimura.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

A laser interferometer accelerometer for vibration sensitive cryogenic experiments

Monitoring motion originating from ultra low-temperature cooling systems like cryocoolers is important for vibration sensitive cryogenic experiments like KAGRA. Since no commercial cryogenic accelerometers are available, we developed a compact self-calibrating accelerometer with a Michelson interferometer readout for cryogenic use. Change in calibration factor and drop in interferometer output originating from temperature drop were the main concerns which were tackled. Sensitivity of $3.38\times10^{-11}$ m/$\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ at 1 Hz was achieved at 300 K. The accelerometer was tested inside the KAGRA cryostat; showed stable operation down to 12 K in 0.1-100 Hz band with only 1% visibility drop. Our accelerometer can be employed in low vibration cryogenic environment for a multitude of applications.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2022

Vibration Analysis of KAGRA Cryostat at Cryogenic Temperature

KAGRA uses cryogenics to cool its sapphire test masses down to 20 K to reduce the thermal noise. However, cryocooler vibration and structural resonances of the cryostat couple to test mass and can contaminate the detector sensitivity. We performed vibration analysis of the cooling system at cryogenic temperature to study its impact on detector sensitivity. Our measurement show shield vibration below 1 Hz is not impacted by cryocooler operation or structural resonances and follows ground motion. The noise floor of the shield in 1-100 Hz was observed to be 2-3 order of magnitude larger than seismic motion even without cryocooler operation. The operation of cryocoolers does not change the noise floor, but 2.0 Hz peaks and their harmonics were observed over the entire spectrum (1-100 Hz). These results were used to calculate the coupling of cooling system vibration to the test mass. We conclude that vibration from the cooling system does not limit KAGRA design sensitivity.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2021

Cryogenic suspension design for a kilometer-scale gravitational-wave detector

We report the mirror suspension design for Large-scale Cryogenic Gravitational wave Telescope, KAGRA, during bKAGRA Phase 1. Mirror thermal noise is one of the fundamental noises for room-temperature gravitational-wave detectors such as Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. Thus, reduction of thermal noise is required for further improvement of their sensitivity. One effective approach for reducing thermal noise is to cool the mirrors. There are many technical challenges that must be overcome to cool the mirrors, such as cryocooler induced vibrations, thermal drift in suspensions, and reduction in duty cycling due to the increased number of potential failure mechanisms. Our mirror suspension has a black coating that makes radiative cooling more efficient. For conduction cooling, we developed ultra high purity aluminum heat links, which yield high thermal conductivity while keeping the spring constant sufficiently small. A unique inclination adjustment system, called moving mass, is used for aligning the mirror orientation in pitch. Photo-reflective displacement sensors, which have a large range, are installed for damping control on marionette recoil mass and intermediate recoil mass. Samarium cobalt magnets are used for coil-magnet actuators to prevent significant change of magnetism between room temperature and cryogenic temperature. In this paper, the design of our first cryogenic payload and its performance during bKAGRA Phase 1 are discussed.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

High Performance Heat Conductor with Small Spring Constant for Cryogenic Applications

We developed a soft and high thermal conductive heat link for cryogenic applications. The measured maximum thermal conductivity was approximately 18500 W/m/K at 10 K. This spring constant was 1/43 of that of a single thick wire with the same cross-sectional area at room temperature. We realized these performances by utilizing high purity aluminum (99.9999 %, 6N) and by stranding many thin wires that are 0.15 mm in diameter. The electrical Residual Resistivity Ratio (RRR) was also measured and used to estimate the thermal conductivity by Wiedemann-Franz law. We observed the size effect on the electrical conductivity, and evaluated the effect of mechanical deformation to the RRR. These evaluations allow us to design a pragmatic heat link for cryogenic application.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2018

Molecular adsorbed layer formation on cooled mirrors and its impacts on cryogenic gravitational wave telescopes

Cryogenic mirrors have been introduced to the KAGRA gravitational wave telescope in Japan, and are also planned to be used in next-generation gravitational wave telescopes to further improve their sensitivity. Molecular gases inside vacuum chambers adhere to cold mirror surfaces because they lose their kinetic energy when they hit cryogenic surfaces. Finally, a number of adsorbed molecules form an adlayer, which will grow with time. The growing adlayer functions as an optical coating and changes the properties of the underlying mirror, such as reflectance, transmittance, and absorption, which are carefully chosen to maximize the detector sensitivity. The adlayer possibly affects the gravitational wave detector sensitivity. In order to characterize these changes, a high-finesse Fabry--Perot cavity was introduced to a KAGRA cryostat and the finesse of the cavity was monitored for 35 days under cryogenic conditions. We confirmed that the molecular adlayer was formed on a cold mirror and caused an oscillation in the finesse. The real and imaginary parts of the refractive index of the adlayer were $1.26 \pm 0.073$ and $2.2 \times 10^{-7} \pm 1.3 \times 10^{-7} $, respectively. These are considered to be that of $\mathrm{H_2O}$ molecules. The formation rate of the molecular adlayer was 27 $\pm$ 1.9 $\mathrm{nm/day}$. In this paper, we describe theoretical and experimental studies of the formation of a molecular adlayer on cryogenic mirrors. Furthermore, the effects of a molecular adlayer on the quantum noise and the input heat to the test mass are also discussed.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2014

Evaluation of heat extraction through sapphire fibers for the GW observatory KAGRA

Currently, the Japanese gravitational wave laser interferometer KAGRA is under construction in the Kamioka mine. As one main feature, it will employ sapphire mirrors operated at a temperature of 20K to reduce the impact from thermal noise. To reduce seismic noise, the mirrors will also be suspended from multi-stage pendulums. Thus the heat load deposited in the mirrors by absorption of the circulating laser light as well as heat load from thermal radiation will need to be extracted through the last suspension stage. This stage will consist of four thin sapphire fibers with larger heads necessary to connect the fibers to both the mirror and the upper stage. In this paper, we discuss heat conductivity measurements on different fiber candidates. While all fibers had a diameter of 1.6mm, different surface treatments and approaches to attach the heads were analyzed. Our measurements show that fibers fulfilling the basic KAGRA heat conductivity requirement of $κ\geq $5000W/m/K at 20K are technologically feasible.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2009

Summary of the J-PARC UCN Taskforce

Discussions in the taskforce meetings in the period of Jan.-Mar. 2009 on the technical possibility of the ultracold neutron (UCN) source at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) is summarized.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2007

Conduction Effect of Thermal Radiation in a Metal Shield Pipe in a Cryostat for a Cryogenic Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detector

A large heat load caused by thermal radiation through a metal shield pipe was observed in a cooling test of a cryostat for a prototype of a cryogenic interferometric gravitational wave detector. The heat load was approximately 1000 times larger than the value calculated by the Stefan-Boltzmann law. We studied this phenomenon by simulation and experiment and found that it was caused by the conduction of thermal radiation in a metal shield pipe.

physics.ins-det↗