[HV pulse] ----+           +-->-- [PD2]
               V           |
->--[HWP]->-- [EOM] -->-- [PBS] --<->-- [QWP] --<->-- [Reference Cavity] -->-- [PD1]
                           |
                [PD3] --<--+

                 REFL_DC

Unlocked           4.50  V
Locked noWFS       1.30  V
Locked + WFS       0.42  V

• 1) turned of the autolocker running the MC-down script
  2) brought the reflected beam spot back on the MC-reflection camera and on the reflection photodiode (REFL-PD)
  3) turned on the LSC servo
  4) tweaked the periscope's mirrors until the cavity got locked on a TEM00 mode
  5) tweaked the periscope aiming at ~0.3V from the REFL-PD and ~3V on the transmission photodiode (TRANS-PD).
  

We found that one OP-amp used in ISS servo oscillated in 10 MHz, 100mV.

Moreover, we found another OP-amp had big noise.

We guess that these oscilation or noise cause saturation in high frequency, and they effect to lower frequency to cause 

 Attached files are open loop transfar function of ISS.

The blue points are open loop TF, and the green line is product of TF of ISS servo filter and TF of current shunt TF of servo filter.

This two must be same in principle, but They have difference f<2Hz and f>5kHz.

Today, I worked with Kakeru on ISS.

The problem is sort of elusive. Some time, the laser power looks fine, but after a while you may see many sharp drops in the power. Some times, the power drops happen so often that they look almost like an oscillation.

We made several measurements today and Kakeru is now putting the data together. Meanwhile, I will put my speculations on the ISS problem here.

The other day, Kakeru took the transfer function of the ISS feedback filter (he is supposed to post it soon). The filter shape itself has a large phase margin ( more than 50deg ?) at the lower UGF (~3Hz) if we assume the response of the current shunt to be flat. However, when we took the whole open loop transfer function of the ISS loop, the phase margin was only 20deg. This leads to the amplification of the intensity noise around the UGF. The attached plot is the spectrum of the ISS monitor PD. You can see a broad peak around 2.7Hz. In time series, this amplified intensity noise looks like semi-oscillation around this frequency.

Since it is very unlikely that the PD has a large phase advance at low frequencies, the additional phase advance has to be in the current shunt. We measured the response of the current shunt (see Kakeru's coming post). It had a slight high-pass shape below 100Hz (a few dB/dec). This high-pass response produces additional phase advance in the loop.

There seems to be no element to produce such a high-pass response in the current shunt circuit ( http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/docs/D/D040542-A1.pdf )

This Jamie's document shows a similar high-pass response of the current ( http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/docs/G/G030476-00.pdf  page 7 )

Now the question is what causes this high-pass response. Here is my very fishy hypothesis :-)

The PA output depends not only on the pump diode current but also on the mode matching with the NPRO beam, which can be changed by the thermal lensing. If the thermal lensing is in such a condition that an increase in the temperature would reduce the mode matching, then the temperature increase associated with a pump current increase could cancel the power increase. This thermal effect would be bigger at lower frequencies. Therefore, the intensity modulation efficiency decreases at lower frequencies (high-pass behavior). If this model is true, this could explain the elusiveness of the problem, as the cancellation amount depends on the operation point of the PA. 

To test this hypothesis, we can change the pump current level to see if the current shunt response changes. However, the PA current slider on the MEDM screen does not work (Rob told me it's been like this for a while). Also the front panel of the MOPA power supply does not work (Steve told me it's been like this for a while). We tried to connect to the MOPA power supply from a PC through RS-232C port, which did not work neither. We will try to fix the MEDM slider tomorrow.

I attach the transfar function of the current shunt.
There is a little gap at 10 Hz for phase, but it is a ploblem of measurement and not real one.
 

I attache the transfar function of ISS servo.

The 4th stage and variable gain amplifier has alomost same transfar function, so their lines pile up.

I measured the output noise of eache stage of ISS servo, and calcurated the noise ratio between input and 
output of each stage.
Generaly, each noise ratio corresponds to their transfar function. This means servo filter works well, not 
adding extra noise.

I attache example of them.
For 2nd stage, the noise ratio is smaller than transfar function with a few factor. This is because the 
input noise is coverd by analyser's noise and ratio between output and input looks small.
This means the input noise of 2nd stage was enough small and all stage before 2nd stage work well

I fixed the broken slider to change the current of the PA.

The problem was that the EPICS database assigned a wrong channel of the DAC to the slider.

I found that the PA current adjustment signal lines are connected to the CH3 &CH4 of VMIC4116 #1. However in the database file (/cvs/cds/caltech/target/c1psl/psl.db), the slider channel (C1:PSL-126MOPA_DCAMP) was assigned to CH2. I fixed the database file and rebooted c1psl. Then the PA current started to follow the slider value.

I moved the slider back and forth by +/-0.3V while the ISS loop was on. I observed that the amount of the low frequency fluctuation of the MOPA power changed with the slider position. At some current levels, the ISS instability problem went away.

Kakeru is now taking open-loop TFs and current shunt responses at different slider settings.

Yoichi and me found that the transfar function of the current shunt changed with the current of PA.
We changed PA current and fixed the unstability of ISS.
Now, laser power is stabilized finely, with band of about 1 Hz.
Yoich will post the stabilized noise spectrum.

There looks to be some non-linear relation between PA current and  the TF of current shunt.
It had changed from the TF which we measured yesterday, so it might change again.

I try to write scripts to sweep PA current and measure the laser power and its rms automatically.
It will be apply for auto-adjustment of PA current.

Attached files are the transfar function of the current shunt with changing PA.
They have difference in lower frequency.

I added a PA current limiter.
It is only a voltage devider (composed with 3.09k and 1.02k resiste) between DAC and PA current adjustment input.
The output range of DAC is +/- 10[V] and  the conversion factor of PA current adjustment is 0.84[A/V] (measured value), so the PA current adjustment is limited +/- 2.1[A] ( 10[V]*1.02k/(1.02k+3.09k)*0.84[A/V] ).

Actually, the manual of the PA tells that the conversion factor is 0.25[A/V].
There is 3 possibility.
1) There are some mistakes in channels of digital system.
2) The PA manual is wrong.
  2-1) The conversion factor of current adjustment is wrong.
  2-2) The conversion factor of current monitor is wrong.
I measured the signal of current adjustment and current monitor directly, and confirm that they are consistent to the value monitord from MEDM.
Hence the PA manual must be wrong, but I don't know which factor is wrong (or both?).
If the suspect 2-2) is guilty, it means we adjust PA current with very small range.
This is a completly safety way, but a wast of resource.

Now, the slider to control current adjustment indicate the output of DAC.
I will improve this to indicate  current adjustment input, but it takes some time for me to learn about EPICS.

I made the following change to correct the sign of the 126MON channel:

allegra:c1aux>ezcawrite C1:PSL-126MOPA_126MON.EGUF -410
C1:PSL-126MOPA_126MON.EGUF = -410
allegra:c1aux>ezcawrite C1:PSL-126MOPA_126MON.EGUL 410
C1:PSL-126MOPA_126MON.EGUL = 410
allegra:c1aux>

New flipping mirror installed on the AP table on the beam path to the REFL199 PD.

If you're missing the double demod signal, please check that it is actually down.

[Rob, Jenne]

I noticed that the ISS Mean Value and CS Saturation were both RED and unhappy. (The alarms were going off, and they were both red on the MEDM screen).  None of the MEDM settings seemed off kilter, so we went out to take a look at the PSL table. 

Rob checked that light is indeed going to both of the ISS photodiodes (Morag and Siobhan).  Next we checked that all the cables were good, and that the power to the ISS box was plugged in. In this process, Rob wiggled all the cables to check that they were plugged in.  Just after doing this, the Mean Value and CS Sat were happy again.  Rob thinks the current shunt connection might be bad, but we don't really know which one it was since all of the cables were jiggled between our checking the screens. 

Right now, everything is happy again, but as with all bad-cabling-problems, we'll probably see this one again.

I don't know why in particular the connection decided to spaz out this afternoon...I don't think anyone opened the PSL table before Rob and I went to investigate.  I was working on the PMC servo (checking the LO levels...to be posted in a couple minutes), but didn't have anything to do with the ISS. After I was done, I put everything back, and locked the PMC and the MC, and everything was good, until some time later when the ISS started flipping out.