Non-contact temperature sensing and optical scatter in cryogenically-cooled crystalline silicon

arXiv:2610.41261v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Cryogenic crystalline silicon is a promising optical material for next generation gravitational-wave detectors due to its low mechanical loss (a driver of thermal noise), high thermal conductivity and zero coefficient of thermal expansion at 123 K. In this paper, we report on the design and results of an experiment to measure the temperature of a flat-flat uncoated crystalline silicon sample using a non-contact sensing method relying on interference (optical fringes) made from reflections between the front and back surfaces. We also propose a scheme for implementation of this technique for cryogenic test masses in future gravitational-wave detectors such as Einstein Telescope and LIGO Voyager. Additionally, we characterize the optical scattering of the sample in vacuum at cryogenic temperatures by using a high-sensitivity infrared camera. We measured relatively constant scatter with an average bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) of $(4.43\pm0.2)\times 10^{-3}\,\mathrm{sr^{-1}}$ at a scattering angle of $\theta_{s} = 7.5^\circ$ over the (cold-plate) temperature range of 123-294 K and saw no evidence for growth of cryogenic molecular layers (ice) on the sample in our current setup.