Recent Progress with the KWISP Force Sensor

2015/10/20 by Cantatore, G., Gardikiotis, A., Hoffmann, D. H. H. +3
#FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex) #Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det) #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1510.06312

Abstract

The KWISP opto-mechanical force sensor has been built and calibrated in the INFN Trieste optics laboratory and is now under off-beam commissioning at CAST. It is designed to detect the pressure exerted by a flux of solar Chameleons on a thin (100 nm) Si₃N₄ micromembrane thanks to their direct coupling to matter. A thermally-limited force sensitivity of 1.5 ⋅ 10^-14~N/√(Hz), corresponding to 7.5 ⋅ 10^-16~m/√(Hz) in terms of displacement, has been obtained. An originally developed prototype chameleon chopper has been used in combination with the KWISP force sensor to conduct preliminary searches for solar chamaleons.

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