Hai Ping Cheng, James Fry

Sponsor: National Science Foundation

Collaborative Research: Center for Coatings Research  

Next-generation gravitational-wave observatories like the 40-km Cosmic Explorer will detect black hole and neutron star mergers back to the era of the first stars, observing stellar-size events at distances where even JWST resolves only entire galaxies. The Center for Coatings Research develops the mirror coatings that make this possible, combining deposition, atomic-scale characterization, and computational modeling to achieve the extraordinarily low optical absorption and thermal noise required to handle 1.5 megawatts of optical power.