[Nichin, Manasa]

I wanted to make sure Alex's system of Diode laser + laser controller + optical splitter was working fine and then make a manual measurement for AS55 PD. Manasa was supervising my work and helping me with unhooking the fibers and taking power meter readings. I have tuned on the power to REF DET from under the POY table.

I switched on the laser sitting in the 1Y1 rack and turned up the driving current to 240mA. On checking the laser power readings at AS55 (AS table) and REF DET (POY table) simultaneously, we got readings of 1.6mA and 2.4mA respectively. This much difference in readings was not expected and I did not continue taking the readings for transimpedence measurement.

I will rectify if this unequal splitting of power by the 1x16 optical splitter is going to cause any difficulties for the automated PDFR system measurement technique and resolve it if needed.

Reconfigured razorblade analysis setup on the PD table as per instructions. Used it to collect data to calculate beam waist with, analyses to follow.

See attached schematic for optical setup.

 I have been trying to use an ADC with the Raspberry Pi to be able to measure the phase difference between FC input and output signals.I had a hard time interfacing the ADC  with the Pi (setup attached) even after trying to debug the issue for last two days. So I and Eriq Q performed a system reboot on the Pi and tried all the possible ways for the Pi to detect the ADC but we were not able to. At the end we decided to order another IC(Microchip MCP 3008) which we hope can be interfaced with the Pi. Till then I will finish to write data from the FC into pipes so that the control computers can access the real time data. I will also look the correctness of the sampling time that is provided by the spec of the MCL-Mini circuits that is if we could really achieve 0.1 s sampling time with the FC.

 [Nichin]

I finally did carry out a measurement on the network analyzer. This proves that the previous system will work properly. Just the optical splitter problem is to be taken care of.

For this, after Elog 10102, I did not touch any of the tables or photodiodes. Only turned on the laser at 1Y1 and took readings from the NA located nearby. I switched off the laser after measurements. The power to REF PD remains on.

I plotted transimpedence plots in the usual way and got ridiculous values of 15 ohms at 55MHz. Obviously there is the problem of varying amount of power illuminating the REF PD and AS55.

So, I just plotted the bode plots of transfer function got from the NA to check if the characteristics of AS55 looks as it was supposed to be and Yes! I got a nice peak at 55MHz.

Acquiring data

 RACK 1Y1

• Diode Laser driving current: 240mA 
• The following conditions were set on Network Analyzer Agilent 4395:

1) Frequency sweep range: 1MHz to 100 MHz.

2) Number of Points sampled in  the range: 801

3) Type of sweep: Linear

• Set the NA to give the corresponding transfer function value (output of AS55 over output of 1611) and also Phase response in degrees.
• Save the data into floppy disk for processing on the computer.

The experimental values obtained were:

DC output voltage of REF PD: 7.48V

DC output voltage of AS55: 53.7mV

Power incident on REF PD and AS55 respectively: 2.4mW  and 1.6mW

Taking the DC transimpedence of AS55 as 66.2 ohms (from schematic given at D1300586-v1) and for REF PD as 1E04 ohms

Hence, Responsivity for REF PD and AS55 respectively are:  0.312 A/W and 0.51 A/W

The data and code used are in the zip file.

Purpose

To use a razorblade to measure beam waist at four points along the optical axis, so as to later extrapolate the waist. This information will then be used to effectively couple AUX laser light to fibers for use in the frequency offset locking apparatus.

Data Acquisition

1) Step the micrometer-controlled razorblade across the beam at a given value of Z, along optical axis, in the plane orthogonal to it (arbitrarily called X).

2) At each value of X, record the corresponding output of a photodiode, (Thorlabs PD A55) here given in mV.

3) Repeat in Y plane at the same value of Z

4) Repeat process at multiple points along Z

Analysis

Data from each iteration were fitted to the error function shown below.

y(x) = (.5*P)*(1-erf((sqrt(2)*(x-x0))/wz))

'P' corresponds to peak power, 'x0' to the corresponding value of x (or y, as the case may be), and 'wz' to the spot size at the Z value in question.

The spot sizes from the four Z values were then fit to:

y(x) = w0*sqrt(1+((x*x)/(zr*zr)))

Where 'w0' corresponds to beam waist, and 'zr' to Rayleigh Range.

Conclusion

This yielded a Y-Waist of 783.5 um, and an X-Waist of 915.2 um.

The respective Rayleigh ranges were 2.965e+05 um (Y) and 3.145e+05  um (X).

Next

I will do the same analysis with light from the optical cables, which information I will then use to design a telescope to effectively couple the beams.

 Finally, the 0.1s sampling rate of the frequency counter(FC) has been achieved. For this I had to :

 Send in byte codes to set a particular range of the frequency counter.

I was digging  in to find how exactly the circuit inside the frequency counter works and how the processor inside is able to read and write bytes through a HID-USB interface. I found out that the 'AutoRange' setting (which I have been using so far) has an independent  multiplexing circuit  which consumes some time(that varies with the drift in frequencies) and thus, the the processor waits for some specific time for this process and cannot reach the minimum 0.1 s sampling time. To mitigate this issue, I set the range bytes to the appropriate range of frequencies so that I can bypass the MUX  delay. Here is the list of Range and frequencies for the FC:

Range 1:    1 - 40 MHz

Range 2:    40 - 190 MHz

Range 3:    190 - 1400 MHz

Range 4 :   1400 - 6000 MHz

I then took measurements for sampling time of 0.1 s at carrier frequencies of 5 MHz and 25 MHz from SRS DS345  and plotted the improvised gain plots(attached) to those in my previous elog(10070)  with the same procedure mentioned before.

To do Next:

Plot the gain plots for higher carrier frequencies till range 3 using Marconi Function generator.

Write the data from FC into C1: ALS-Y_SLOW_SERVO1_OFFSET EPICS channel.

The updated script for remotely getting data from Agilent 4395A network analyzer is located at /users/nichin

This network analyzer device is located at crocetta.martian (192.168.113.108)

How to run the script:

> python NWAG4395A_modified.py [filename.yml]

1. The script accepts sweep parameters and output options via a .yml file that is written following a template that can be found at /users/nichin/NWAG4395template.yml
2. The data obtained is stored as a .dat file and the corresponding details regarding the acquired data is in a .par parameter file
3. You can choose to get a plot of the data obtained by specifying it in the .yml file. The plots are automatically stored as PDF.
4. Plots, data and parameter files are all stored in a new folder that is created with a timestamp in its name.
5. NOTE: Plotting options are only available in computers running numpy versions of 1.6.0 or above. The plotting sections of the code worked on Chiara, which has a 1.6.1 numpy, but did not work on Rossa which only had 1.3.0 numpy. Anyway, I have added an extra function that checks the version and skips the plotting part if needed.

Test Run:

I connected a simple 2MHz Low pass filter between the modulation output and signal input of the NA and ran a scan from 0Hz to 20MHz. The script was run from Chiara.

The expected plot was obtained and is attached here.

Further work:

I now have to work on setting up the RF switch in rack 1Y1 to select between required PDs and also on the code that chooses which channel is being selected.

There is also a problem of 2 8x1 RF switches being present, instead of one 16x1. Alex's code for RF switching does not take this into account.

RXA: I've deleted your plot because it didn't meet the minimal Bode plot standards. Please look up "Bode Plot" using Google/Wikipedia and try to follow some good example. Bode plot should contain Phase as well as magnitude. Also, the axes must be labeled with some physical units.

I came in the lab. Found bunch of white EPICS boxes on ottavia.
It turned out that only ottavia was kicked out from the network.

After some struggle, I figured out that ottavia needs the ethernet cable unplugged / plugged
to connect (or reconnect) to the network.

For some unknown reason, ottavia was isolated from the martian network and couldn't come back.
This caused the MC autolocker frozen.

I logged in to megatron from ottavia, and ran at .../scritpt/MC

nohup ./AutoLockMC.csh &

Now the MC is happy.

The IR beam was found on the PRM surface, some CCDs, and in the X arm. The TTs are not aligned well yet.

I'm leaving the IFO with the following state.

Status:

ITMY/ETMY - aligned to the given green beam. GTRY (no PSL green) 1.0~1.1

ITMX/ETMX - aligned to the green beam. The end PZT for the green beam was steered to have maximum GTRX (0.76 without PSL green)

TT1/TT2 - unknown alignment, TT1/TT2 are related such that the spot is on the POP CCD

PRM - aligned to the given IR beam (i.e. PRM spot on the REFL CCD)

BS - aligned to the given IR beam (i.e. ITMX spot on the AS CCD, The X arm is flashing)

Notes:

- ITMX was stuck in the suspension. it was caused by the EQ.

- When the X arm was aligned to the green beam, there was no green hitting on the GTRX PD. That's why the end PZT was adjusted.

- In order to earn more range for TT1, C1:IOO-TT1_YAW_GAIN and C1:IOO-TT1_PIT_GAIN were increased to 300 (100 nominal) and the limiter (at 500) were removed.

- The HeNe laser for BS/PRM does not emit the beam even with the driver turned on. Is there a hidden shutter or something? ==> Jenne

TO DO:

- Find the Y arm fringe by moving TT1 and TT2 without loosing the PRM/AS/POP spots.

Sorry Rana for not giving much attention to the plot. I will definitely change the way they are being plotted.

I was more focused on getting the data acquisition to work. Also, the current script gets only the magnitude and not the phase... I still have to work on that.

This morning valve condition: V1, VM1, V4 and V5 valves were closed. IFO pressure rose to 1.3 mTorr

It was caused by low N2 pressure.  Our vacuum valves are moved-controlled by 60-70 PSI of nitrogen.

When this supply drops below 50-60 PSI the interlock closes V1 valve. This is the minimum pressure required to move the large valves.

It is our responsibility to check the N2 cylinder pressure supply.

The vacuum valve configuration is back to VAC. NORMAL,  CC1  4.8E-6 Torr

PS: Bob says that the second cylinder was full this morning, but the auto-switch over did not happen.

IR Alignment of the IFO is recovered! Green alignment could use some attention. 

Arms and PRC hold well, powers are within normal ranges. (TR[X,Y] >.9, POP110I > 400)

Details:

• Starting from where Koji had brought things (i.e. beams on REFL, AS), I gradually stepped the PRM back to where I had a PRC lock right before the bootfest, using SUSPIT_IN and SUSYAW IN, while stepping the TT pointing (arbitrarily shifting TT1 and TT2) to keep the REFL camera spot centered. 
• Green was locked fairly well to the Yarm (GTRY = 0.8), so I knew it supported a mode. I misaligned ITMX to keep the Xarm out of the way. 
• Adjusting TT1 and TT2, I was able to get some light on the POP camera, while keeping REFL spot visible with small adjustments to PRM
• I set up the PRM to set up some PRM-ITMY retroreflection, and saw tiny flashes in TRY. 
• From here, I wandered around with the tip-tilts to try and get better arm pointing, while tweaking PRM for the REFL spot and retroflection, and BS for the AS spot. I got this to TRY flashes of ~0.3

Then, Jenne took over, worked some alignment magic, and did the hard part of getting the Yarm locked and ASS'd. 

• I then took back over and got the Xarm locked and ASS'd.
• I saved relevant mirror positions, and set up the PRMI, got it locked, saved PRM position. 
• Jiggled the BS/PRM oplev HeNe power connector, it turns on now, oplevs are working. 
• Similar to TT1, TT2 gains for PIT and YAW are now 300. Strictly speaking, they don't have to be, but PIT would be very nearly railed, and I changed YAW so that all four gains would be consistent.

Caveats:

Green no longer locks to 00 on the Y-arm, and the X-arm green transmission isn't the best despite PZT fiddling (~.6). Also, when green is locked to the Xarm, I see a distinct circular spot on the GTRY camera, with Y green and PSL green shutters closed. 

While Jenne used Yarm ASS successfully, when I run it now, it slowly pushes things out of alignment, and two of the traces (YARM_ETM_YAW_L_DEMOD_I_OUTPUT, and the same for ITM) have a reasonable constant offset that doesn't move away. 

[Koji, Jenne]

The Yarm ASS is now working (as is the Xarm ASS).  Both of the TT's pitch servos had a sign flip.  We don't know why.

To start, we lowered the matrix elements that push on the TTs by a factor of 3, to compensate for the new factor of 3 in the slider gains:  ezcastep C1:ASS-YARM_OUT_MTRX_5_5 /3 C1:ASS-YARM_OUT_MTRX_5_7 /3 C1:ASS-YARM_OUT_MTRX_6_6 /3 C1:ASS-YARM_OUT_MTRX_6_8 /3 C1:ASS-YARM_OUT_MTRX_7_5 /3 C1:ASS-YARM_OUT_MTRX_7_7 /3 C1:ASS-YARM_OUT_MTRX_8_6 /3 C1:ASS-YARM_OUT_MTRX_8_8 /3

We turned off all 4 tip tilt ASS servos (in the Yarm ASS servo screen), and turned them on one at a time.  By doing this, we discovered that the pitch servos for both TT1 and TT2 needed to have the opposite sign from what they used to have.  However, the yaw servos kept the original signs.  It really doesn't make sense to me why this should be, but this is the way the ASS servo works.  We left both Xarm and Yarm ASSs on for several minutes, and saw that they didn't push any mirrors out of alignment.

The ASS_DOTHER_ON burt snapshot has been resaved with the new values.

Also, earlier this evening, I aligned the Yarm green beam to the cavity, although the cavity was not optimally aligned, so this needs to be re-done.

On our to-do list should be to add the tip tilt slider values to the DAQ channels list.

Edit/manasa/ Data has not been fit correctly in here. A proper fit will follow this elog.

Proper fits and numbers are here :elog

Earlier last week I had tried to measure the AOM ringdown and concluded I could not make one.

I was proved wrong and I was able to make a measurement. I am still not sure why I was not able to make the measurement earlier with the very same settings and configuration.

What I did:

I gave the AOM a 0-1V modulation input using the signal generator (50 ohm feedthrough bnc was used to impedance match the AOM driver's modulation input). For the measurement here I used a 1Hz square wave. I used a 300MHz oscilloscope to look at the falling edge of the ringdown PD output installed.

I recorded a few ringdown samples. To get a quick number, I fit one such sample to find the AOM switching time as 1.48us (Plot attached). 

 Just a quick update on the status of the auto locker:

The auto locker now runs and respawns automatically on megatron, through ubuntu's "upstart" init system, instead of cron. 

• The autolocker script itself is:/opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/MC/AutoLockMC.csh
• The startup script called by the upstart system is: /opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/MC/AutoLockMC.init
• The upstart configuration is: /etc/init/MCautolocker.conf
• The auto locker is started by executing this command on megatron: sudo initctl start MCautolocker

This was pretty simple to set up, once I figured out how to provide the necessary environment variables in AutoLockMC.init 

EDIT: The script and template file have been moved to /opt/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/general/netgpibdata/

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The NEW and IMPROVED script for remotely getting data from Agilent 4395A network analyzer is located at /users/nichin

This script is quite different from the one in Elog 10108 and fetches us both magnitude and phase. There is an added feature of setting the IF Bandwidth.

The network analyzer is located at crocetta.martian (192.168.113.108)

How to run the script:

> python NWAG4395A_data_acq.py [filename.yml]

1. The script accepts sweep parameters and output options via a .yml file that is written following a template that can be found at /users/nichin/NWAG4395A_parameters.yml
2. The data obtained is stored as a .dat file and the corresponding details regarding the acquired data is in a .par parameter file
3. Separate .dat and .par files are created for phase and magnitude of voltage data.
4. You can choose to get a plot of the data obtained by specifying it in the .yml file. The plots are automatically stored as PDF.
5. Plots, data and parameter files are all stored in a new folder that is created with a timestamp in its name.
6. NOTE: Plotting options are only available in computers running numpy versions of 1.6.0 or above.(Currently only Ottavia and Chiara)

Test Run:

I connected a simple 2MHz Low pass filter between the modulation output and signal input of the NA and ran a scan from 100KHz to 20MHz. The script was run from Ottavia.

The expected plot was obtained and is attached here.

Current work:

Setting up the RF switch in rack 1Y1 to select between required PDs and scripts to tell it which channel to choose over the Ethernet.

 The attached are the gain plots at carrier frequencies of 100 MHz, 500 MHz and 1 GHz measured using IFR 2023B (Marconi).

[Jenne, TaraV]

We had a look this morning at the status of the seismometer array, so that we can get it all put together. While we were looking at the Guralp at the Yend, we noticed that it was pointing the wrong way.  The North-South nubbins were pointed East-West, so X and Y coming out of the seismometer were backward.

To fix the Yend's Guralp, we powered off the Guralp readout box, rotated the seismometer, re-leveled it, and then turned the power back on.  Now X from the seismometer lines up with the X data channel, and similarly for Y.

The Yend Guralp has all of the cabling needed, and is installed on the granite slab.  This seismometer doesn't need any more work for now.  When we get around to it, we'll need to do some kind of thermal insulation, but other than that, it's good to go.

The Xend will also have a Guralp (Zach still has it in the Gyro lab for now).  We have the long cable that should go from the readout box to the slab that we'll need to put into the cable tray.  The short cable from the slab's plate to the seismometer is already in place.  For this seismometer, we should just need to plop the instrument in place and lay the cable in the overhead cable trays.  We should also remove the now obsolete STS-2 cable while we're doing that.  So, the Xend seismometer station doesn't need too much work.

The corner station will need more work.  Zach made for us the long cable, although he still has it in the Gyro lab, so when we get the seismometer and cable back, we'll need to lay that cable in the overhead trays.  The short cable from the slab's plate to the seismometer does not exist yet.  We want to make sure that we can feed the finished cable and connector through the hole in the slab, and then we'll solder it up out here on the EE bench.  I think this is how Den was doing things.  If not, we'll have to do the soldering in-situ, which we don't want.  So, for the corner station, we need to make the short cable, lay the long cable, get the T-240 back from Zach and put it on the slab, re-install the readout box that Zach has, etc, etc.  We should also make sure that the spaghetti pot fits on the slab, underneath the piece of metal that's sticking out over the slab.  We think that it's the same amount of clearance that the Yend pot has, so it should be okay, but we'll check.  The O-ring seems to be sitting on the MC2 chamber, so we should remember that. 

Neither the Xend nor the corner station had the yellow dog clamps, so we'll have to figure out where Den / Steve have hidden them. 

 EDIT:  We have checked, and the Guralp connector, which is larger than the Trillium connector, fits through the hole in the slab (with some disassembly), so we can solder together the short cable out here on the EE bench, and install it separately.  Eeeeexxxxxcelllent.

 The TESCOM automatic changeover regulator  [ model ACS 012-1011 ] manifold is most likely  clogged. The new one will arrive 8-8-2014

This means that the IFO pressure may go up to a few mTorr when we change cylinder or V1 valve triggered because there is no nitrogen supply.

Ophir power meter gets new filter with calibration. This is not cheap. It was the second time we lost it.

Filter leash is attached.

Koji has provided a 2TB USB3 external hard drive that will get daily backups of chiara:/home/cds, the idea being that if the internal HD at /dev/sdb1 fails, we can physically open the external up, and swap the hard drive into chiara. 

We're running an rsync job on it right now, which should be done in a few hours. (USB3 is fast!)

I've also written a backup script at scripts/backup/rsync_chiara.backup which keeps its books in scripts/backup/rsync_chiara.backup.log 

I'm adding a entry to the root crontab on chiara to execute the script every day at 7am. 

 [Nichin, Eric Q]

We added a new LAN wire from Rack 1Y4 to 1Y1 to connect the RF switch at 1Y1 to the martian network. The wire is labelled "To RF Switch (1Y1)"

The wire was run along the Y arm in the tray right next to the vaccum chamber, not the one on top.

After the meeting, I aligned the IFO to the IR, and then I aligned the Ygreen to the Yarm.  I then found the beatnotes and used ALS to hold the arms with CARM/DARM, locked the PRMI, and reduced the CARM offset until I had arm powers of about 3.  Given that this was at 3pm, and people were tromping all over inside the IFO room, I feel positive about tonight.  

So, IFO seems ready, carm_cm_up script was successful, and got me to arm powers of 1, and then I further reduced the offset by a bit to go a little higher. 

I need to figure this out before it's worth trying any acrobatic AO path turn-on scenarios.

Also this evening, I went to the Yend and did another tweak-up of the green beam alignment. 

Never mind.  This is just the low pass filter that Den put in to try to deal with the moving cavity pole. 

Before I realized this, just in case it was a computer quirk, Koji and I rebooted the end station front end machines.  This had no effect other than to keep me searching and measuring until I figured it out.  If I turn off the low pass, the phase pops back up to very close to the reference.  The low pass currently comes on automatically as part of the carm_cm_up script.

 [ Nichin, Eric G]

RF cables have been installed between deomodulator output PD RF MON and the RF switch for the following PDs:

 REFL33, AS55, REFL55,REFL165,REFL11,POX11,POP22

The cables are labelled on both ends and have been run on the overhead tray.

The cabling looks neat on 1Y2, but not so much in 1Y1(RF switch). I will better organize them later.

There were quite a few more demodulator units labelled with PD names. Do any of them need to be included in the automated frequency response measurement system? Please let me know so that I can include them to the RF switch and check them for proper illumination, which i will do for all the above PDs next week.

Test run:

I tested the RF switch selection code and then the data acquisition code for the NWAG4395A network analyzer and they both seemed to work fine. I selected the channel to which AS55 is hooked up to and then remotely got its transfer function.

There is quite some noise in the system as the plot shows. Especially the phase. Maybe my driving power was a bit too low. Have to figure out the reason behind this.

Further work:

• Make sure all the PDs are properly illuminated.
• Create a DC voltage reading's database for all PDs.
• Canonical plots for each PD to compare with the current data.
• Implement a script to fit the transfer function and extract required information about the PD.

I had been working on the Xend table optical layout update. Since the two steering mirrors in the Xend green are too close to each, there is a very small Gouy Phase different between these two mirrors. It was suggested to place two lenses so that we can increase the Gouy Phase. I have been working with Nick on this problem, and we had found a solution by using a la mode. We had written an a la mode code that optimize the Gouy Phase and the Mode Matching at the same time. After trying different lenses, we found the following results: a mode matching of 0.9939 as it is show in the first attachment below, and we found a Gouy Phase different between the two mirrors of about 60 degrees. I took photos of the Xend Table. The first photo is the Xend table as we had it right now. In the second photo, I moved the 2nd lens, and I placed the two more lenses that we need it, with more or lenses the correct position where they will be placed. The three old lenses will be replaced by three lenses of different focal length as it can be seen in the first attachment below. The first lens and third lens will stay in the same position where the old first lens and old third lens are, and the second lens will be moved by about half of an inch. We might have one or two of the lenses that we need, but we will have to order the rest of the lenses that need. My plan is to verify the lenses that we already have. Then, I need to let Nick know with lenses we need to order. Hopefully, we will be able to update the table by the end of this week if everything turn out fine.

 In the order that makes more sense to me, it looks like you have:

REFL11, REFL33, REFL55, REFL165,

AS55

POX11

POP22

We don't really need POP22 right now, although we do want the facility to do both POP22 and POP110 for when we (eventually) put in a better PD there.  Also, we want cabling for POP55, so that we can illuminate it after we re-install it.  If we're working on 2f PDs, we might as well consider AS110 also, although I don't know that there was a fiber layed for it.  The big one that you're missing is POY11.

 In addition to needing obnoxiously regular mxstream restarts, this afternoon the sus machine was doing something slightly differently.  Only 1 fb block per core was red (the mxstream symptom is 3 fb-related blocks are red per core), and restarting the mxstream didn't help.  Anyhow, I was searching through the elog, and this entry to which I'm replying had similar symptoms.  However, by the time I went back to the CDS FE screen, c1sus had regular mxstream symptoms, and an mxstream restart fixed things right up. 

So, I don't know what the issue is or was, nor do I know why it is fixed, but it's fine for now, but I wanted to make a note for the future.

I'm not sure why the c1cal model didn't come up the last time c1lsc was rebooted, but I did an "rtcds start c1cal" on the lsc machine, and it's up and running now.

TaraV - geology major undergrad -  of Jenne's summer help received 40m specific basic safety training.

I was finally able to get a reasonable measurement for the beam waist(s) of the spare NPRO.

Methods

I used a razorblade setup, pictured below, to characterize the beam waist of the spare 1064nm NPRO after a lens (PLCX-25.4-38.6-UV-1064) in order to subsequently calculate the overall waist of the beam. The setup is pictured below:

After many failed attempts, this was the apparatus we (Manasa, Eric Q, Koji, and I) arrived with. The first lens after the laser was installed to focus the laser, because it's true waist was at an inaccessible location. Using the lens as the origin for the Z axis, I was able to determine the waist of the beam after the lens, and then calculate the beam waist of the laser itself using the equation wf = (lambda*f)/(pi*wo) where wf is the waist after the lens, lambda the wavelength of the laser, f the focal legth of the lens (75.0 mm in this case) and wo the waist before the lens.

We put the razorblade, second lens (to focus the beam onto the photodiode (Thorlabs PDA255)), and the PD with two attenuating filters with optical density of 1.0 and 3.0, all on a stage, so that they could be moved as a unit, in order to avoid errors caused by fringing effects caused by the razorblade.

I took measurements at six different locations along the optical axis, in orthogonal cross sections (referred to as X and Y) in case the beam turned to be elliptical, instead of perfectly circular in cross section. These measurements were carried out in 1" increments, starting at 2" from the lens, as measured by the holes in the optical table.

Analysis

Once I had the data, each cross section was fit to V(x) = (.5*Vmax)*(1-erf((sqrt(2)*(x-x0))/wz))+c, which corresponds to the voltage supplied to the PD at a particular location in x (or y, as the case may be). Vmax is the maximum voltage supplied, x0 is an offset in x from zero, wz is the spot size at that location in z, and c is a DC offset (ie the voltage on the PD when the laser is fully eclipsed.) These fits may all be viewed in the attached .zip file.

The spot sizes, extracted as parameters of the previous fits, were then fit to the equation which describes the propagation of the spot radius, w(z) = wo*sqrt(1+((z-b)/zr)^2)+c, w(z) = w0*sqrt(1+((((z-b)*.000001064)^2)/((pi*w0^2)^2))) where wo corresponds to beam waist, b is an offset in the z. Examples of these fits can be viewed in the attached .zip file.

Finally, since the waists given by the fits were the waists after a lens, I used the equation wf = (lambda*f)/(pi*wo), described above, to determine the waist of the beam before the lens.

Plots

note: I was not able to open the first measurement in the X plane (Z = 2in). The rest of the plots have been included in the body of the elog, as per Manasa's request.

Conclusion

The X Waist after the lens (originally yielded from fit parameters) was 90.8 27.99 ± .14 um. The corresponding Y Waist was 106.2 30.22 ± .11 um.

After adjustment for the lens, the X Waist was 279.7 907.5 ± 4.5 um and the Y Waist was 239.2 840.5 ± 3.0 um.

edit: After making changes suggested by koji, these were the new results of the fits.

Attachments

Attached you should be able to find the razor blade schematic, all of the fits, along with code used to generate them, plus the matlab workspace containing all the necessary variables.

NOTE: Rana brought to my attention that my error bars need to be adjusted, which I will do as soon as possible.

I moved stuff on the PSL table to accommodate the PMC ringdown setup.

I used the beam that leaks from the steering mirror at the PMC transmission that was dumped to a razor blade dump. I installed a Y1 to steer the beam to the ringdown PD. Power in the beam 75mW.

Results are in here elog 

 Ants are back on the PSL table. We'll be mopping the floor with pest control solution tomorrow morning.

The RF cables have been routed incorrectly. The cables run to the module from the front of the rack. We cannot close the doors to the racks if they are to remain this way.

I have asked Nichin to reroute the cables properly.

 A new RF cable has been included for POY11. Cabling for POP55 and POP110 might or might not exist. I will check and report it.

- Plots should be directly attached on the elog. (Attaching codes in a zip is OK.)

- Plot legends should not touch or hide any data points.

- Don't exclude data points.

- The model for the beam profile fitting is incorrect: zr and w0 are dependent

- The code needs to be reviewed by someone for refinement.
  (EricQ, or possibly Jamie, Jenne while he is absent).

RF cables have been rerouted from the side of the rack, under the supervising eye of Manasa.

I moved the red ladder from near 1X4 to 1Y1 and back again.

Current list of RF cables:

REFL11, REFL33, REFL55, REFL165,

AS55

POX11

POP22

POY11

I have not connected them to the RF switch yet. ( until I figure out how to get both the switches working properly)

The PMC local oscillator is going a little weird dying.  We need to check out why the level is fluctuating so much.

Here's a 6 month plot, where you can see that the lower level keeps getting lower (y-axis is dBm):

This LHO entry from 2008 shows where we first discovered this effect. As Rick Savage and Paul Schwinberg later found out, the ERA-5SM+ amplifier slowly degrades over several years and was replaced for both of the eLIGO interferometers. We have spares in the Blue box and can replace this sometime during the day.

Our PMC LO is made by this obsolete crystal oscillator circuit: D000419. There are many versions of this floating around, but they all have the ERA-5 issue.

This Red Ladder movement also probably included some bumping of the MC2 stack (be more careful when working in the lab). Around 5 PM today, the MC lost lock.

When I came in later, I found that the MC was flashing the TEM17,9 mode and had been misaligned like this for ~1 hour. I looked through the MC SUS sensor trends and moved MC2 back to its old position to get the locking back. I disabled the WFS, tweaked the TEM00 mode alignment using only MC2 sliders, and then re-enabled WFS. Its been OK for the past 5 hours.

It seems that there is no better chip in MiniCircuits line-up with the same form factor.
ERA-5 is the most powerful one in the ERA (or MAR) series.

If the output is ~0dBm we have MAR-6SM in stock. But I suspect that ERA-5 was driven at the power level close to its saturation (~18dBm).

If we allow different form factors, we have GVA-** or GALI-** in the market and also in the blue tower, in order to gain more performance margin.
If it is difficult to apply them, I would rather use another ERA-5 with enhanced heat radiation.

I'm sure that Downs has EAR-5 replacement.

 I am guessing that 75 mW will burn / destroy any Thorlabs PD. I hope that mW is supposed to be uW.

[Jenne, Rana]

A few times this evening, I had been having trouble locking CARM and DARM with ALS, and holding it for very long.  When it started happening again, I switched over to locking the individual arms with ALS.  Yarm seems to be totally fine, but Xarm has something funny going on. 

Rana and I have narrowed it down to being a problem with ETMX.  We were watching ETMX's oplev and local damping error signals, and would see occasional glitch events.  This happened when oplev + local damping were both on, both off, and when only local damping was on.  We believe that this points to something weird with the coil driver and actuator chain.

We tried to watch for a while to see if it was a step event (something switching on and off periodically), or an impulse event (some transient oscillation in an opamp perhaps), but the problem went away again.  We have come to no conclusions other than we have a problem that needs watching.

During our investigations, to more softly turn off the damping, Rana set the local damping gains, as well as the oplev gains to zero using a ramp time.  We don't recall the precise numbers, and conlog doesn't have the gains recorded, so we made an educated guess.  The local damping seems fine, but the oplev damping should be re-confirmed.  Steve, can you please show Harry how, and have him help you measure the ETMX pitch and yaw oplev loops, and set the gains so that they match up to the references, and then post the measured bode plots when you're done? 

 Although there were few timing issues with the FC and the Raspberry Pi at the lowest sampling time of the FC (0.1s) even after adding an external trigger circuit, it turned out that most of these issues are not prevalent at higher sampling times(>0.5 s)(narrow peaks of PSD seen for higher sampling times). Rana suggested me to look at the PSD plots at different sampling times of the FC so that we can decide which would be the optimal sampling time to work with the FC before replacing the spectrum analyzer. I took the measurements with the setup discussed in my previous elog(http://nodus.ligo.caltech.edu:8080/40m/10129) . However, the  noise of the R Pi- FC interface should be taken care of (I will discuss it with my mentors).

Attached are the plots at 100 MHz carrier frequency at  different sampling times of the FC( 0.1s, 0.2s, 0.3s, 0.5s, 1s) (pdfs and code attached in a zip file)

RXA: Put all the plots in a single PDF file and use the same axis limits for all plots so that its easy to compare.      (Attached in PSD.pdf)

Koushik and Koji try to fix the PMC oscillator issue. So we remove the module from the rack.
This means we don't have the PMC transmission during the work.

 My plan for next week is...

1)    1) Taking DC output readings with multimeter for each PD to create a database for all the PDs. Requires taking off the table tops for each PD.  Also, making sure each PD is illuminated properly.

    2 - 3 Hours inside the lab 

    Requires presence of expert

Occupies all the PDs , RF switch and the Network analyzer.

2)    2)  Integrate the switch selection script with the Network analyzer script to complete the automation part of the project.  (If time permits, build a simple GUI for easy operation)

Occupies the control room computer, RF switch and the Network analyzer

3)    3)  Create a database of canonical plots for each PD to compare with the current plot and maybe even plot the difference between the current plot and canonical plot.

Occupies the control room computer, PDs , RF switch and the Network analyzer.

4)    4)  Fit the transfer function or transimpedance using vector fitting. (vectfit4.m)

5)    5) Update 40m-Wiki

6)    6) Progress Report to be submitted to SFP.

We need to work farther on checking out the end transmission QPD electronics situation. 

In bullet-point form, we need to:

* Ensure that the Weiss QPD head modifications have been made on these diodes.  (cf. Rai W's LLO elogs on QPDs)

* Ensure that the QPD biases are somewhere in the range of 10-15V, not the old 100V.  (Because we only need HV to make the capacitance low for RF use. Low voltage means less power dissipation in the head)

* Ensure the Rana/Rob modifications have been propagated to the whitening boards, so that we have full dynamic range.  (Steve is looking for the marked up paper schematics)

* Replace signal path resistors with low noise metal film resistors.

* Check QPDs / whitening boards for oscillation (with a scope probe), ensure that we chose an appropriate analog gain.

In thinking about the transimpedances that we want, we thought about the current that we expect.  We should get about 100 mW of light transmitted through the ETMs when we have full IFO lock.  There is a 50/50 BS to split the light between the QPD and the Thorlabs transmission diode, so we have about 50 mW incident on the QPDs, which is about 13 mW per quadrant.  With a sensitivity of about 0.15 Amps/Watt for silicon, this means that we're expecting to see about 2 mA of current per quadrant once we have the IFO fully resonant. We want this to correspond to about 5V, which means we want a transimpedance gain of around 2.5 kOhm. 

For the things that need checking, each quadrant has:

Photodiode  ------  Gain Switch 1 ----- Gain Switch 2  ------ Gain Switch 3 ------ Variable Gain Amplifier ------- Whitening stage 1 (z @ 4 Hz, p @ 40 Hz)  ------- Whitening stage 2 (z @ 4 Hz, p @ 40 Hz)

We want to check on the status of each of these switches, and whether they actually do what they say on the QPD Head screens.  Q has checked out and fixed the bit outputs for the whitening stages, but the rest still needs to be checked out.  Also note that the Switch 1, Switch 2 and Switch 3 are common to all 4 quadrants (i.e. enabling switch 1 on one quadrant enables it on all quadrants), but the variable gains and the whitening stages are individual for each quadrant.

 Last Week:

-I continued to struggle with the razorblade beam analysis, though after a sixth round of measurements, and a lot of fiddling around with fit parameters in matlab, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel.

Next Week:

-I plan to check my work with the beamscan tomorrow (wednesday) morning

-Further characterize the light from the fibers, and set up the collimator

-Design and hopefully construct the telescope that will focus the beam into the collimator

Materials:

- Razorblade setup or beamscan (preferably beamscan)

- Fiber Illuminator

- Collimator (soon to be ordered)

- Lenses for telescope (TBD)

Koushik replaced an ERA-5 in the PC path. We put the module back to the rack and found no change.
The epics LO level monitor monitor is still fluctuating from 6~11dBm. We need more thorough investigation
by tracing the signals everywhere on the board.

Despite the poor situation of the modulation, PMC was locking (~9PM). Rana suspect that the PMC demodulation
phase was not correctly adjusted long time. 

Koushik has the measured power levels and the photos of the board. I'll ask him to report on them.