title: Discharging fused silica optics occluded by an electrostatic drive.
abstract: Charge accumulation on test masses is a potentially limiting noise source for gravitational-wave interferometers, and may occur due to exposure to an electrostatic drive (ESD) in modern test mass suspensions. We verify that an ESD can cause charge accumulation on a fused silica test mass at a rate of 8 × 10(-16) C/cm(2)/h. We also demonstrate a charge mitigation system consisting of a stream of nitrogen ionized by copper feedthrough pins at 3750 VAC. We demonstrate that the system can neutralize positive and negative charge from 10(-11) C/cm(2) to 3 × 10(-14) C/cm(2) in under 2 h.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas 78212, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ugolini
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas 78212, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fitzgerald
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas 78212, USA.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rothbarth
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas 78212, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang