I moved the axuiliary NPRO to the PSL table today and started setting up the optics.

The Faraday Isolator was showing a pretty unclean mode at the output so I took the polarizers off to take a look through them, and found that the front polarizer is either out of place or damaged (there is a straight edge visible right in the middle of the aperture, but the way the polarizer is packaged prevents me from inspecting it closer). I proceeded without it but left space so an FI can be added in the future. The same goes for the broadband EOM.

There are two spare AOMs (ISOMET and Intraaction, both resonant at 40MHz) available before we have to resort to the one currently installed in the PSL.

I installed the Intraaction AOM first and looked at the switching speed of its first order diffracted beam using both its commercial driver and a combination of minicircuits components. Both show similar behavior. The fall time of the initial step is ~110ns in both cases, but it doesn't decay rapidly no light but a slower exponential. Need to check the 0 order beam and also the other AOM.

Intraaction Driver

Mini Circuits Drive