Investigation of mechanical properties of cryogenically treated music wire

It has been reported that treating music wire (high carbon steel wire) by cooling to cryogenic temperatures can enhance its mechanical properties with particular reference to those properties important for musical performance. We use such wire for suspending many of the optics in Advanced LIGO, the upgrade to LIGO—the Laser Interferometric Gravitational-Wave Observatory. Two properties that particularly interest us are mechanical loss and breaking strength. A decrease in mechanical loss would directly reduce the thermal noise associated with the suspension, thus enhancing the noise performance of mirror suspensions within the detector. An increase in strength could allow thinner wire to be safely used, which would enhance the dilution factor of the suspension, again leading to lower suspension thermal noise. In this article, we describe the results of an investigation into some of the mechanical properties of music wire, comparing untreated wire with the same wire which has been cryogenically treated. For the samples we studied, we conclude that there is no significant difference in the properties of interest for application in gravitational wave detectors.