Mechanical dissipation in silicon flexures

The thermo-mechanical properties of silicon make it of significant interest as a possible material for mirror substrates and suspension elements for future long-baseline gravitational wave detectors. The mechanical dissipation in 92 mu m thick (110) single-crystal silicon cantilevers has been observed over the temperature range 85 K to 300 K, with dissipation approaching levels down to phi = 4.4 x 10(-7). (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.