Here I'm posting a plot showing a set of measurements that I made in the past few days to determine the absolute length of the PRC cavity.
As in my other AbsL measurements, I inject an auxiliary laser beam into the cavity and look at the transmission. In the PRC case, the beam is injected through the dark port and I look at a pick-off of the REFL beam. The aux laser is phase locked to the PSL beam and I control the differential frequency between the two. The PSL and the aux beam interfere and beat at their differential frequency.
The attached plot shows the transmitted power as a function of the beat frequency.
Fitting the data with the model would let me determine the cavity length.
By now I can estimate the length of the PRC at about 2.257m, but it's still a rather approximate value.
I can't provide accurate error bars yet. I need to optimize the measurements to get a more precise value.
I will go more through the details of the measurement technique and of the fitting function as soon as I have more definitive results.
The data points shown here were taken at different times and not always in optimal alignment condition of the PRC.
To get a good fit of the data I should have fewer frequency segments, taken in a shorter period of time, and in which the power circulating inside of the cavity (ie SPOB) fluctuates as little as possible.
For what regards the time needed for a measurements, I already significantly sped up the measurements (i.e. optimizing the scanning and acquisition GPIB scripts, and fixing a couple of problems with the PDH box used in the PLL), and finally now I can scan several tens of MHz in few minutes.
About the frequency segments, so far they have been determined by two factors
1) Tthe frequency generator in the PLL: the Marconi works as a continuous wave generator only in limited ranges. Switching from one to another brakes the wave in a way that causes the PLL to lose lock.
2) Getting below 18 MHz a series of other beats appear on the PLL photodiode and make the PLL lose lock.
For the first problem, I'm thinking of using two Marconis and to mix their signals. I would keep one at 300MHz and I would scan the other from 300MHz to 500MHz. In fat, in that frequency range the Marconi has not discontinuity.
To try to avoid the other beats at low frequency, I'm not entirely sure about what to do yet.
To be continued... |