Gravitational Wave Detection with High Frequency Phonon Trapping Acoustic Cavities

Abstract

There are a number of theoretical predictions for astrophysical and cosmological objects, which emit high frequency ($10^6-10^9$~Hz) Gravitation Waves (GW) or contribute somehow to the stochastic high frequency GW background. Here we propose a new sensitive detector in this frequency band, which is based on existing cryogenic ultra-high quality factor quartz Bulk Acoustic Wave cavity technology, coupled to near-quantum-limited SQUID amplifiers at $20$~mK. We show that spectral strain sensitivities reaching $10^{-22}$ per $\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ per mode is possible, which in principle can cover the frequency range with multiple ($>100$) modes with quality factors varying between $10^6-10^{10}$ allowing wide bandwidth detection. Due to its compactness and well established manufacturing process, the system is easily scalable into arrays and distributed networks that can also impact the overall sensitivity and introduce coincidence analysis to ensure no false detections.