[Radhika, Paco]

I modeled a digital filter for adding a resonance at a desired frequency (Q~100), with a complex-conjugate pole pair and 2 real zeros (2nd order system). Paco suggested I start with a 575 Hz resonance. I loaded the digital filter onto the Moku using the Moku python API (script at labutils/moku/mokuGoPro/mokuDigitalFilter.py). I tested the filter by feeding the Moku a 2 Vpp signal around 575 Hz and looking for some noticeable gain - however the signal passed though unchanged. There might be an additional Moku command for enabling the filter - I'll look into this.

TODO:

On Monday I aimed to measure the transfer function of the x-arm AUX PDH loop while momentarily locked, with a Moku:Go. I re-aligned the XEND green beam input to the arm cavity with M1 and M2 steering mirrors. I got GTRX to ~1.4 and the TEM00 mode nominally locked (back to ~5 seconds of lock, like last time). Previously Paco and I had achieved transmission of 3, so there was still a good way to go in mode matching. 

However I noticed the backwards-propagating beam started to drift relative to the opening of the Faraday isolator (located after the shutter). During manual alignment the backwards beam cleared through the aperture of the FI, but around 5 minutes later it had drifted too high and the beam spot was visible against the FI body, missing the aperture. At this point transmission had dropped to 0, and I realigned the beam to clear through the opening. I tried to further increase transmission but the drift continued to occur within a few minutes of re-alignment. I double checked that there was no dithering of ITMX or ETMX. It seemed there was high residual motion of the ETM, but I was not sure how to decrease this (damping filters were on). I moved on to setting up the TF measurement and decided to return to alignment once the loop excitation was configured.

I chose to inject an excitation from the Moku at the error point of the PDH servo box. I set up the measurement from 100 kHz to 100 Hz, zoomed in around the loop UGF. I passed the mixer output / error signal (alpha) to a T-splitter and sent one copy to input A of an SR560, and routed the Moku excitation to input B. The summed output of the SR560 was sent to the PDH servo input (beta). I passed the second copy of the error signal (alpha) to the Moku, along with the servo input monitor signal (beta) from the PDH box. The Moku measured the transfer function alpha/beta to obtain G_OLG. 

I returned to align the green beam and recovered flashing of the TEM00 mode. However when I closed the loop (with excitation), it didn't catch lock. I quickly reverted the loop back to its original state and confirmed that TEM00 locked for ~5 seconds. This made me think the excitation signal was too large relative to the error signal, so I reduced its amplitude to 500 mVpp. This still didn't recover the lock, and at this point the alignment had drifted again so I decided to wrap up. 

TODO:

I am working remotely for the next week, so I can carry out these steps in January.

[Radhika, Anchal, Paco]

AUX PDH Loop Stability

Today I tried aligning the XEND green beam into the arm cavity. Using M1 and M2 steering mirrors, I reached a max transmission ~1.2 of TEM00. In this configuration there was a "donut" mode also flashing, with transmission exceeding that of TEM00. Scanning all 4 degrees of freedom, I couldn't get TEM00 transmission to exceed 1.2, or significantly suppress the other modes. Not great mode matching. (PD gain: 20 dB; servo gain: 10.0.) 

In an earlier conversation Paco had recommended I preamplify the green REFL signal with an SR560 before feeding it to the RF mixer. (For yarm this is done with an SR560 gain of 1000.) I did so and raised the gain on the SR560 until it overloaded (PD: 0 dB; SR560: 100). This didn't immediately improve the lock quality, but because alignment still needed work I wasn't surprised. 

Anchal suggested the laser mode might be distorted by some lenses further upstream. We noticed some vertical spreading/distortion of the green beam by the first lens after SHG. I adjusted the pitch of an IR steering mirror until it disappeared. We then used the irises by the entrance to the arm cavity to coarsely align the input beam with M1 and M2. This time, fine alignment brought green transmission to just under 4. After slightly adjusting the half-wave plate, green transmission peaked at 4. (This is the highest I've seen it - previous max was 3.) The final combination of PD gain, SR560 gain, and servo gain that maximized transmission and duration of lock was (PD: 10 dB; SR560: 20; servo: 4.0). At its longest, lock on TEM00 was maintained for ~10 seconds.

AUX PDH Loop OLTF

In parallel with above, I was trying to take an OLTF of the loop whenever it was temporarily locked. I set up the measurement configuration like in the previous ELOG (injection at error point). Like last time, the loop would not lock when summing the PDH error signal with the excitation. I confirmed this was true even when I turned off the Moku excitation output. Checking the summed signal output, the Moku was adding an offset to the error signal. Buffering the excitation with an SR560 solved this issue.

The locked mode was switching pretty rapidly during the time I tried to measure the OLTF, and I ended up moving onto trying to improve lock. I might return today to try to take a measurement - I'll post it here.

I returned the half-wave plates on the XEND table back to their original angles, and restored the loop configuration with the PDH servo box. I returned the PD gain to 40 dB (original setting), and set the servo gain knob to 6. This was the region of highest loop stability, with the lock holding for a few seconds (as before). The control signal on the scope did not look intuitive - the peaks of the control signal corresponded with zero crossings of the error signal. 

Paco encouraged me to retake transfer function measurements of the PDH servo box. The main takeaway is the PDH servo (boost on) has the expected frequency response at a gain setting of 3 or under, up to 100 mVpp of input. Attachment 1 shows the frequency response at a servo gain of 2, for varying input amplitudes. 

The rest of the bode plots correspond to servo gain of 4, 6, 8, and 10 (boost on). The saturation LED would turn on above a gain value of ~3.25, so these results can't be analyzed or interpreted. But it does seem like a steep, low-frequency jump is a signature of the saturated servo. This jump doesn't appear with 10 mVpp input, at least at or above 1 Hz. 

Last week I captured the closed-loop error signal of the xend green PDH loop. Green transmission was around 2.5, and the laser was locking for about 3 seconds every couple minutes or so. The servo gain knob was set to 5.0. Repeating this with higher transmission/locking time is worthwhile.

Attachments 1 and 2 are two separate lock durations, with x-axes spanning 1 second each. The trace of interest (error signal out of mixer) is Channel 1. Channel 2 contains the control signal outputted by the PDH servo box.

The error signal is contained in a slow-moving envelope at ~4.5 Hz, zoomed in with time cursors in Attachments 3 and 4.

Zooming in further, the error signal has a fast component at ~150 Hz (Attachments 5, 6).

Before taking these traces, I captured the green REFL signal and open-loop PDH error signal shapes (Attachment 7). This error signal linear range spans ~500 mVpp. From looking at this signal it seems like the closed loop contains excess noise.

From considering the above traces and loop calculations I can start to infer the closed loop shape and/or UGF, and what direction we need to move in to recover good locking.

I reconnected the green REFL monitor channel and acquired its spectra when the laser was (mostly) locked. During the collection window, TEM00 would catch lock for a few seconds, drop, and catch again. As of today this is the longest the lock will hold. I'm uploading a screenshot for now but will replace with a proper .pdf spectra image.

There is a peak ~558 Hz and at its second harmonic. Additionally there is a less sharp peak at 760 Hz.

Today while aligning optics at the xend, my knee engaged the AUX laser interlock. I spent some time trying to disable the interlock, and I'm putting the solution here for mainly my reference: pull on the red interlock button. This shorts the two pins on the back of the Mephisto controller.

[Rana, Radhika]

While discussing xarm AUX laser locking, we noticed excess motion of ITMX. We took spectra of all ITMX sensor outputs and observed a 16 Hz peak, corresponding to the bounce mode of the optic [Attachment 1, 2 (zoomed)]. The UL sensor in particular is sensitive to the bounce DOF. A peak at the roll resonance can also be seen.

To suppress the bounce resonance, we altered the BounceRoll filter in the SUSPOS, SUSPIT, and SUSYAW filter modules. The bounce bandstop filter was widened to the range 15.25-17 Hz [Attachment 2]. The roll bandstop filter was left as is.

After seeing a 560 Hz peak in the XAUX REFL PD signal, I took spectra of the PDH error signal (post-demod) [Attachment 1]. The peak remained, warranting further investigation.

I disconnected the XAUX PDH loop (including PZT modulation) and looked at the beatnote between the PSL (locked to IMC) and the free-running XAUX laser. Attachment 2 shows the PSL-XAUX beatnote alongside the PSL-YAUX beatnote (both around 60 MHz). Note that the YAUX PDH loop was already disconnected, but I added a terminator to the PZT input BNC. Here the 560 Hz peak originating from the XAUX laser is clear. (It is also interesting that the BEATY signal has a significant comb structure compared to BEATX.)

Anchal suggested I tune the XAUX temperature for the frequency difference to switch signs (keeping magnitude at 60 MHz). The result is in Attachment 3 - the 560 Hz peak remained, showing it's not a local temperature-dependent feature.

From this is seems the 560 Hz noise is coming from the XAUX laser.

[Rana, Radhika]

Yesterday we looked at the out-of-loop PDH error signal of the AUX laser and determined that the LO phase needed significant adjustment. Previously I suspected that the LO phase knob was not actually connected to the circuitry, and we confirmed this looking inside the PDH servo box. Instead we shifted the modulation frequency towards a large PZT resonance in order to obtain a phase shift. (Original frequency: 231.25 kHz.) On a scope it looked like the PDH error signal was improving.

Today I manually swept across modulation frequency in increments of 5 kHz. Qualitatively the PDH signal looked the cleanest between 285 and 290 kHz [Attachment 1]. Here the linear region spans 2V, although it could still be larger in amplitude relative to the side peaks. More fine tuning is still remaining, and at this frequency I'll measure spectra + time series of the err and control signals. 

I retook the last spectrum measurement of ALS beatnote fluctuations, with the HEPA on and off. The top plot corresponds to BEATY, and the bottom plot corresponds to BEATX. The 560 Hz peak doesn't seem to be dependent on the status of the HEPA. The noise floor change in BEATY is probably due to drift of the beatnote frequency.

I measured the transmitted power @1064nm on one of the LaserOptik mirrors labled SN6

Here is the data

The mirror is not a good reflector at 0 deg.

 More data on the transmission. Measured the tranmission as a funtion of incidence angle at 1064nm

From the trend, it seems that the Reference Cavity's temperature servo is working fine with the new copper foil. I was unable to find the insulating foam anywhere, but that's OK. We'll just get Frank to make us a new insulation with his special yellow stuff.

The copper foil that Steve got is just the right thickness for making it easy to form around the vacuum can, but we just have to have the patience to wrap ~5-10 more layers on there. We also have to get a new heater jacket; this one barely fits around the outside of the copper wrap. The one we have now seems to have a good heating wire pattern, but I don't know where we can buy these.

I also turned the HEPA's Variac back down to the nominal value of 20. Please remember to turn it back up to 100 before working on the PSL.

This is the trend so far with the copper foil wrapping. According to Megan's calculation, we need ~1 mm of foil and the thickness of each layer is 0.002" (1/20th of a mm), so we need ~20 layers. We have ~5 layers so far.

As you can see the out-of-loop temperature sensor (RCTEMP) is much better than before. We need another week to tell how well the frequency is doing -

the recent spate of power cycles / reboots of the PSL have interrupted the trend smoothness so far.

I wrapped another ~3 layers onto there. It occurs to me now that we could just get some 2mm thick copper plates made to fit over the stainless steel can.

They don't have to completely cover it, just mostly. I also took the copper circles that Steve had made and marked them with the correct beam height

and put them on Steve's desk. We need a 1" dia. hole cut into these on Monday.

To compensate for the cooling during my work, I've set the heater for max heating for 1 hour and then to engage the temperature servo.

I also noticed the HEPA VARIAC on the PSL was set to 100. Please set it back to 20 after completing your PSL work so that it doesn't disturb the RC temperature..

[Koji, Rana, Nic, Steve]

We went to the 25-pin D cable which connects to the TT1 quadropus and succeeded eventually in swapping pins 12/24 into the 13/25 positions.

1. The D-sub connector is a custom made LIGO part and so it doesn't at all work to use the standard pin extractor tools to move the pins out; we should have investigated this before spending all this time poking at and possibly damaging the existing connector.
2. To move the pins, we have to partially dis-assemble the connector and fish the pins/wires through the appropriate holes. Unfortunately, the design is such that we nearly lose all of the pins when trying to do this. Pictures describe the story better than words.
3. After the swap we tried to test the TT, but again wasted some time because the vac feedthrough was incorrectly labeled. The 25-pin feedthrough labeled as "PZT1" does not, in fact, connect to the TT. Instead, its the one slightly above it that is labeled "Pico". I have moved the PZT1 sticker up to match the actual connector. In order to discover this, we beeped through several stages of the coil driver, cable system. WE need to order some in-line D-sub breakouts for 25pin, 37pin, and 9pin which are similar to the ones we have now for 15pin. These are better than the green terminal block breakouts.
4. After this, we were able to see the TT move, but elected to leave the final piece of the work (determining which microD goes with which coil) to when Jamie gets back.
5. The TT screen is not good: it needs to be just like the usual sus screen so that we can put in offsets, excitations, etc. Perhaps also the ASC-TT screen can link to the TT:SUS screens. We can just copy the eLIGO TT screens to get going.

 No, the small boxes must be attached to the optical tables. They won't be heavy enough to change the table tilt.

Also, all tools must be color coded according to the optical table using the 3M Vinyl table color code:

http://www.3m.com/product/images/Vinyl-Electrical-Color-Tape-300.jpg

I worked on the script SPAG4395A.py tonight with Masayuki's help. This sets up the parameters on the Agilent 4395A and then acquires the spectrum data. It had a couple of bugs before: no matter what channel you requested, you always got channel R. It also would disobey any requests to reduce the attenuation and left the Auto Atten ON. The version now in the SVN allows you to choose the channel and the attenuation.

It then makes this plot using matplotlib. The attached image is from the REFL165 pickoff at a time tonight when the arm powers were ~5-10. I have converted the spectrum from RF electrical Watts into Volts (V = 50*sqrt(W)). To go from the analyzer input to the demod board input we should scale this spectrum by a factor of ~15 (to account for the 20 dB from the coupler and the 3 dB of the splitter and a little more for losses). On the oscilloscope we see Vpp ~5 mV, so that's ~75 mVpp at the output of the BBPD which we're using for REFL165. Perhaps we can handle another factor of ~2-3 ? I'm not sure what we have in terms of linearity measurements on this thing.

EDIT: Evan is right, its V = sqrt(50*W), not V = 50*sqrt(W). ignore y-axis above

The controller would be in the c1sus model, and connects to the c1sup plant model. So the controller doesn't go in the plant model.

Both the controller and the plant can be modeled using a single filter module in each separate model as you've drawn, but they go in separate models.

Summary: This afternoon we managed to get the temperature control of the reference cavity working again.

We bypassed the MINCO PID by connecting the temperature box error signal directly into EPICS.

We couldn't configure the PID so that it worked with the modified temperature box so we decided to just avoid using it.

Now the temperature control is done by a software servo by using the channel C1:PSL-FSS_MINCOMEAS as error signal and driving C1:PSL-FSS_TIDALSET (which we have clip-doodle wired directly to the heater input).

We 'successfully' used ezcaservo to stabilize the temperature:

ezcaservo -r C1:PSL-FSS_MINCOMEAS -s 26.6 -g -0.00003 C1:PSL-FSS_TIDALSET

We also recalibrated the channels:

C1:PSL-FSS_RMTEMP

C1:PSL-FSS_RCTEMP

C1:PSL-FSS_MINCOMEAS

with Peter King on the phone by using ezcawrite (EGUF and EGUL) but we didn't change the database yet. So please do not reboot the PSL computer until we update the database.

More details will follow.

I installed ligoDV in the /ligo/apps/ligoDV/

Now, by pointing the tool at the local NDS2 server (megatron:31200) you can access the recent local data (raw, trends, etc.)

by running /ligo/apps/ligoDV/ligodv from the command line.

We locked the PRMI, this time really on the sidebands, using the two REFL55 signals.

Here are the parameters: triggering on POP22_I in at 140, out at 20. No normalization. MICH gain -0.15, PRCL gain 0.1

It seems that the lock is not very stable. It seems likely to come from some large angular motion of one of the mirrors. We'll need to calibrate the optical lever signals to understand which one is moving too much.

Before we installed the video switch box, we also took some photos of it. We uploaded them onto the 40m Picasa.

Video Matrix

The first photo is the an entire view of the switch box. The following four photos are the details of the switch matrix.

 The slideshow below is a dump of the last several months of photos from the Olympus. The originals have been deleted.

This past week I have completed the following tasks:

1. Built a trigger and power box for the camera GC 750M (06058) and took some test images to see whether the trigger box really works. Result: It is doing fine!

2. Went over the setup that is already sitting on the table. Ref: Aidan's elog entry

3. Attended seminars and talks given by Alan, Jahms, Koji and Rana.

4. Attended the mandatory laser safety training by Peter.

Expected task for this week (could be more):

1. Work out analytical expressions of the power of the carrier and sidebands going to the camera in the setup. (As suggested by Rana and Joe)

2. Work on producing beat signal to the camera using the He-Ne laser setup.

3. Move,if possible, to the Nd:YAG setup.

4. Go over the codes and paper by the past SURFers on the phase camera experiment.

This week I have completed following tasks:

1. Worked out the analytical expressions for the amount of power of the DC and oscillatory part going into the camera.

2. Realigned the He-Ne PhaseCam setup as we had to replace the first steering mirror after the laser with a silvered mirror ( one without a dielectric coating for 1064 nm).

3. Gone through the code written by a previous surfer (Zach Cummings).

4. Read the paper 'Real-time phase-front detector for heterodyne interferometers'- F. Cervantes et. el. where they talk about constructing a phase detector for LISA pathfinder mission. One interesting fact I found was that, they used InGaAs chip for their CCD Cam which has a amazing QE of 80% @ 1064 nm. Unfortunately, the one we are using (Micro MT9V022 CMOS) has only ~5% QE for 1064 nm and 50% for 633 nm. One top of it MT9V022 has a built-in infra-red filter infront of it to make it more insenstive to 1064. In such limitations, we may have to find a work-around for this issue. Any idea?

5. Read about the EOM and AOM and their vibrating (!) way to add on and alter the incident light on them. (Source: Intro to Optical Electronics-Yariv)

One task that we couldn't accomplish even though I planned on doing is:

1. Move,if possible, to the Nd:YAG setup.

Task for this week:

1. Produce breathtaking calibration of the camera at He-Ne setup.

2. Read 'Fringe Analysis'-Y.Surrel and 'Phase Lock Technique'-Gardner.

3. Modify the phasecam code.

4. Produce an alternate triggerbox using diodes instead of Op-Amp as op-amp is suspected to fail at some point driving the camera due to impedance mismatch.

5. Answer Koji's question at Aidan's ELOG .

I have completed the following tasks:

1. Find a simplified calibration of the exposure time for the current He-Ne setup. Basically, I triggered the camera to take 20 snapshots with a 20 Hz driving signal at different exposure time beginning from 100 us (microsecond) upto 4000 us with an increment of 200 us.

    Result: The current power allows the camera to have an exposure time of ~500 us before the DC level begans to saturate.

2. Aidan and I did some alignment and connected the AOM and corrected the driving frequency of its PZT to 40 Mhz(which apparently was disconnected which in turn gets the credit of NO beat signal for me until Tuesday 07/06/2010 5:30 PST) .

    Result: I got the beat signal of 1 Hz and 5 Hz. Image follows (the colormap shows the power in arbitrary units).

3. Finished writing my Progress Report 1 .

Here are some more details about the current phasecam setup. We are using a He-Ne laser setup

A crude snap shot of the setup....

We sent light through SM2 (Steering Mirror 2)  to BS1(Beam-Splitter 1) where the laser light is split into two parts, one going to the AOM and the other to the EOM. The EOM adds 40 MHz sidebands to the incoming carrier light after SM3, and the AOM shifts the frequency of the incident light on it to 40.000 005 MHz. The purpose for doing this juggling is to intentionally create a beat signal off the reference beam from the AOM with the sidebands added at the EOM. Note that, we are driving the AOM at 7dBm and the EOM at 13 dBm with 0 (nil) modulation. The two lights are combined at the BS2 and sent off through SM5 to the camera. The CMOS of the camera contains silicon based Micro MT9V022 chip which has a quantum efficiency of 50% at 633 nm. Thus we expected a fairly good response to this He-Ne setup from the camera. 

Using a trigger circuit, we triggered the camera at 20 Hz by sending a 20Hz sinusoidal signal to it. The trigger circuit converts this to a positive square waves. Then I roughly figured out the optimum exposure time for the camera before the DC levels saturates it by writing a code for taking a series of 25 images at different exposure time. I found that 500µs seems to be a reasonable exposure time. So, using this data, I took 20 consecutive images and sent them through a short Fourier Transform segment using Matlab to see the beat signal. Note that the DC component from these processing of the images have some fringe pattern which is due to the ND 2.5 filter that we were using to reduce the light power incident on the camera. The FT method also gave us the presence of the beat signal at the corresponding bin of the FT (for example: for 5Hz beat signal, I got the DC at bin 1 of the FT and 5Hz component at bin 6 as expected). Then I changed the AOM driving frequency to 40.000 001 MHz in order to see a 1 Hz beat signal. The results for both is in my previous post. 

 Before I left, I disconnected the PD55, so the 33 MHz channel wasn't physically connected to anything!!! Only one end of the wire was connected to the rack while the other was free...

So it wasn't the PD connection that is responsible for MC tripping at the later time...

This week I was mainly interested in investigating the noise source at the phase camera. So having this issue in mind, my activities are the following:

1. I worked on producing multiple beat signal (1Hz and 5Hz). Elog entry.

2. I altered the setup so that instead of triggering the camera from the signal generator, we are now triggering it from the beat signal from the reference beam and sideband.

3. I made the nice little aluminium table for all the amplifiers, mixer and splitters to sit at one place instead of floating around.

4. I talked with Aidan and Joe and verified my calculation and extended it to further investigation of the noise source in the setup.

Plan for the upcoming week:

1. Measure and calibrate the camera w.r.t the power incident on it.

2. Investigate the noise source.

This past week I have worked on the following:

1. Setting up the infrastructure to do noise analysis: We added a temporary channel on the DAQ to connect to the PD 55 which we are using to take the power measurement. Before that, I connected the PD55 to an oscilloscope and recorded the power.

The power at PD55 as measured using the oscilloscope = 600 µV.

Then I tried to calibrate the channel by sending up a signal from the function generator and measuring up the offset.. However, the channels seems noisy enough, especially due to electronics noise as suggested by the measurements and FFT calculation.

2. I worked on trying to sync the data acquisition of the PD and the CAM. After sometime spent on fiddling with the software method such as taking images at stamped time and then lining them up with the daq timestamps, I found a hardware method as suggested by Aidan. It was putting up a shutter (Uniblitz shutter and driver VMMD1) in the setup. I synced the shutter with the camera for which I had to tear apart the previously made trigger box and add a sync output from the camera (took a while as I also had to make a new cable).

3. I worked (still working) on making a differential amplifier to blow up the signal from the PD.

Attached are some calculation that I did previously for the phasecamera setup. This shows the nature of the beat signal that we are measuring.

I am also trying to characterize the noise source of the camera also. Following images shows the mean dark noise (with no light on the camera) and the standard deviation for 100 snaps at an exposure time of 500 µs.

My target now is to measure the response gain of each pixel and how they vary over intensity. I already have a simplified setup on the table and will work on it today. Details will follow at the end of the day.

I made some measurement of the SCR (signal to contrast ratio) from the signal from the EOM and the AOM.

The recipe for that was:

1. Trigger the camera at 20 Hz (from function generator).

2. Take a series of 20 images.

3. Do FFT to take out the DC component.

4. Extract the beat signal out of the FFT'd data.

5. Block the EOM.

6. Take another set of images of the AOM beam.

7. Take more(!) images, but this time of the background (blocking both EOM and AOM).

So the SCR is calculated by the ratio of the FFT'd DC and the 5 Hz signal. Using the CCD, I obtained the SCR to be 0.075 ± 0.01. Previously, we expected our SCR to be 0.09 as in the previous e-log entry.

The plot for that is:

 After measuring the SCR, I also measured the amplitude of the sideband and made an amplitude profile of the 40 MHz sideband.

The amplitude measurement is done as follows:

We know that the our 5 Hz signal consists of,

Sig = A_r * A_sb    where A_r = amplitude of the reference beam, A_sb= amplitude of the sideband

So, A_sb = Sig / A_r .

But,  A_r = sqrt ( P_AOM - Background),

Thus  A_sb = Sig / sqrt( P_AOM - Background) .

So the amplitude profile is done by taking the 5 Hz beat signal and dividing by the square root of the AOM beam minus the background light.

The plots looks like this:

The solo sideband profile looks like this:

Next we plan to trigger the camera with a 1 KHz signal and take snaps at n* T/4 (where n=0,1,2,3) of the period of the beat signal. So the plan is to trigger the camera at the point where the red dots appear in following cartoon.

Some more details of this setup will be posted later.

 The SCR was at first measured using the output of the PD. That was exactly from where we got our 0.09 (previous elog entry). The second measurement was from the CCD.

Aidan and I made some attempt to measure the power of the sidebands so that we can calculate our expected signal strength.

Our setup looks like the following:

As light from the laser is split into two at BS1, the transmitted beam has higher power as our BS1 is only coated for 1064nm. We get two reflected beams from BS1, one reflected of the front surface and the other from the back surface. We took the stronger back reflected beam to the EOM driven at 40 MHz (also at 25 MHz at  a later time). The AOM produced a reference beam with 40 .000 005 MHz offset which we recombined with the sidebands obtained from the EOM. The beat produced is sent off to PDA 10CF connected to 4395A spectrum analyzer.

The plots for 40MHz sidebands and 25 MHz sidebands looks like this:

From the above spectra, at 40 MHz sideband regime:

Power of the carrier @ 40 MHz = -39.72 dBm

Power of the sideband @ 80 MHz = -60.39 dBm

At 25 MHz sideband regime,

Power of the carrier @ 40 MHz = -40.22 dBm

Power of the upper sideband @ 65 MHz = -61.72 dBm

Power of the lower sideband @ 15 MHz = -60.99 dBm

Power Measurement:

We made some necessary power measurement using a PD connected to a voltmeter after the EOM and the AOM when the EOM is driven at 40 MHz:

___________________________________________________________

Dark :  0.025 V

AOM on: 4.10 V    (EOM blocked)

EOM : 2.425 V      (AOM blocked)

___________________________________________________________

 From the earlier calculation (ref: Elog entry July 28) the power that we expect to see at the PD is,

P= A_c ^2 + A_r^2 + A_(-sb)^2+ A_sb ^2 +2* A_r* A_sb * cos ( w_(r,sb) t ) ,                         where A_c= carrier;   A_r= reference beam;     A_sb=Upper sideband;    A_(-sb)= Lower sideband,     w_(r,sb) = w_r - w_sb

P = A_c ^2 + A_r^2 + A_(-sb)^2+ A_sb ^2 +2* A_r* A_sb  , letting cos (w_(r,sb) go to 1) is order to approximate the maximum signal

So the signal that we expect to see relative to the DC ( i.e    A_c ^2 + A_r^2 + A_(-sb)^2+ A_sb ^2,    the first four terms of the power equation) is,

Sig = 2* A_r* A_sb    / { A_c ^2 + A_r^2 + A_(-sb)^2+ A_sb ^2 },

Since the modulation index is small, the power in the sideband is very small compared to carrier and the reference beam. So we can ignore the sideband power for the signal expression.

So,

Sig = 2* A_r* A_sb  /  ( A_c ^2 + A_r^2 )

So if we want to maximize this signal w.r.t the reference then,

d (sig)/ d(A_r) = 2 { ( A_c ^2  - A_r^2) *A_sb } / {( A_c^2 + A_r^2)} ^2

Thus, the signal is maximized when,

A_r^2 = A_c^2

We adjusted the AOM to be driven at + 7.7 dBM so that the new power at the AOM matched the EOM power, which is 2.397 in the voltmeter.

So the power at both the AOM and the EOM are:

P_AOM = ( V_AOM - V_dark) / (PD responsitivity * Transimpedance gain)

               = ( 2.397 - 0.025 ) / ( 0.45  * 1.5 x 10 ^5 )

               = 3.51 x 10 ^ - 5  W

P_EOM = (V_EOM - V _dark) / (PD responsitivity * Transimpedance gain)

               = ( 2. 425 - .0.025) / ( 0.45 * 1.5 x 10 ^5 )

               = 3.55 x 10^ - 5  W

From the spectra of the 40 MHz sideband above, the ratio of the carrier and the sideband amplitude is:  A_c / A_sb = 10.8 .

P_EOM = A_c ^2 + 2 A_sb ^2

Therefore, A_sb = sqrt ( P_EOM / 118.64) = 5.47 x 10^ - 4   V/m

Thus,     A_c = 5.908 x 10^ -3   V/m

and    A_r = sqrt ( P_AOM) = 5.92 x 10 -3    V/m.

This measurement can be used to calculate the signal to contrast ratio (SCR) that we expect to see:

SCR = 2 A_r * A_sb  / ( A_c^2  + A_r^2 )  = 0.09

Our next step is to measure the actual signal to constrast ratio as seen by the camera. Details of that will be posted soon.

I found the VCO driver, that Rana asked me to locate, inside the 40m. I already have one VCO from PSL lab. Now, I have kept both of them inside the 40m lab(one on the cart in the side of the Y-arm and the other near the X-arm electronics table).

Riju, Jenne

We have checked the transfer function of a bandpass filter using AG4395A network analyzer and retrieved the data through GPIB. The RF out signal of AG4395A had been divided by splitter with two outputs of the splitter going to through R and the filter which was connected to the A channel of the network analyzer. The GPIB data came in complex data format, from which the absolute value and phase had to be retrieved. 

The plot for the TF is as following

 I ve tested another bandpass filter today with similar set-up. This time I took the data with corrected reference level. To set this reference-level the filter was disconnected and the cable was connected "thru" according to the instructions provided in the manual of AG4395A at http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/04395-90040.pdf, page 3-10. The transfer functions are as follows 

I have started making the circuit to measure the transimpedance for the photodiode PDA10CF using Jenne's laser. I will continue it tomorrow.

I repeated my experiment to get noise level. To get that I disconnected the bandpass filter SBP-10.7  from channel A of network analyzer AG4395A and terminated both the open ends (open end of filter and open end of channel A) with 50ohm terminator.

Reference level had been corrected, signal and noise data had been collected separately w.r.t that level.

Command for GPIB:   ./netgpibdata.py -i 192.168.113.105 -d AG4395A -a 10 -f filename

The result is as follows

Photodiode PDA10CF was under test. The RF out signal of AG4395A had been divided by splitter with one output of the splitter going to R channel of the network analyzer and the other to the laser. The splitted laser beams - splitted with beam splitter - fall on two photodiodes - one reference and the other on PDA10CF. The outputs of these two photodiodes go to channel B and A respectively of the network analyzer. The measured transimpedance data had been collected using the GPIB connection.

The result is as follows:

I have repeated the transimpedance measurement of PDA10CF. Also made the dark current noise measurement by connecting the PDA10CF output to the A channel of network analyzer.  The results are as follows. I I started to take the reading for shot noise intercept current using a light bulb in front of the PD, changing the current through the bulb, but at higher current the bulb filament got broken, so the experiment is incomplete.

Today I have measured the transimpedance and dark-noise of the MC-REFL PD.

For transimpedance measurement I first collected the data of the reference Newfocus PD connecting it at channel B of Network-analyzer using the set-up of Jenne's laser. The data for the MC-REFL PD had been collected by connecting it to the A channel of Network Analyzer. To do that I shifted the Jenne's Laser to the table of MC-REFL PD, I moved the laser output on the table and fixed a lens and a mirror on the table. Taking the ratio of the two sets of datas I got the required trans-impedance.

Dark-noise readings were taken keeping the laser off.

I will upload the corresponding plots tomorrow.

 Here I upload the plots corresponding to my last day's measurements.

 Hi,

The correction for different levels of DC photocurrent in the two devices had been taken care by one MATLAB code, the code that originally was made by Koji.

The analyzer noise I had not recorded; today I am going to record it.

Riju

 Here is the data for AG4395A network/spectrum analyzer noise data. I collected the data by putting 50ohm terminator on channel A with same input attenuation setting (0dB attenuation).

Summary:

Today I have tested the MC transmission-end RF photodiode PDA255 for transimpedance and dark noise using Jenne's Laser and AG4395A network/spectrum analyzer. The dark noise voltage distribution for the transmission and reflection PDs of MC and the analyzer has been compared.

Motivation:

I am to do the input mode cleaner cavity mode scan. The electronic and shot noise of the components used , particularly photodiode noise, will affect the peak position  of the modes, indicating the uncertainty in the measured frequencies of the modes. That will in turn give the uncertainty in the measured change of radius of curvature of the mirrors in presence of the laser beam, from which we will be able to calculate the uncertainty in the mirror-absorption  value.

Method:

For PD transimpedance measurement I used Jenne's laser along with AG4395 network analyzer. The RF out signal of AG4395A had been divided by splitter with one output of the splitter going to R channel of the network analyzer and the other to the laser. The splitted laser beams - splitted with beam splitter - fall on two photodiodes - one reference(Newfocus1617? PD, the DC and RF transimpedance values were taken from its datasheet ) and the other on PDA255. The outputs of these two photodiodes go to channel B and A respectively of the network analyzer. The measured transimpedance data had been collected using the GPIB connection. It had been ensured that the PD under test is not going to saturation, for that the source power level was kept to -40dBm. transimpedance measurements were compensated by the ratio of DC photocurrent.

For dark noise measurement the output of the PD was connected to the A channel of the AG4395A, when there was no light falling on it. The response is collected using GPIB. The attenuation of channel A was made 0dB. ( AG4395A was kept in Spectrum analyzer mode in Noise Format).

Results:

The plots corresponding to the measurements are attached.

Discussion:

The comparison for the dark noise voltage levels of the MC transmission PD (PDA255) with MC REFL PD has been made with analyzer dark noise voltage. It is shown in the attachment (I will upload the dark noise current comparison too....since the output darknoise depends on the gain of the circuit, it is important to divide this voltage spectra by transimpedances.)

Today I have taken the reading for shot noise intercept current for the PDA255 - MC transmission RF PD. To do that I have put an incandescent bulb (JKL lamps, 222 bulbs, voltage and current rating 2.25V and 0.25A) in front of the PD and varied the current through it from 0A to 0.29A at 2.2V. I measured the corresponding DC voltage and took the noise data (4395A spectrum analyzer/ format noise, channel attenuation 0dB) through GPIB .

I will process the data and upload the result soon.

Riju

Summary:  I am stuck with the measurement of shot-noise-intercept-current of PDA255. Seeking help.

Motivation: It is to measure the shot noise intercept current for PDA255 - the MC transmission RF photodiode to get an idea for the noise current for the detector.

Method: It is as described in the elog  7907 

Result: The plot is attached here.

Discussion: The result I got is really unexpected, the noise voltage should increase with the DC current level that corresponds to the increment of light level too. But actually it is decreasing. Three times I have repeated this experiment and got the same result. I want some suggestion on this regard.

 Here I am attaching the plot in loglog scale. I have taken the data-points from no light condition to the maximum light condition, the minimum variation possible in the current supply was 0.01A. The noise was visibly decreasing at higher light level.

For the noise level calculation I took the average of total noise in the range 7-60MHz. For each range the formula used was

noisevalue= sqrt(data(:,2)*100)/sqrt(2)/sqrt(channel BW);     -- this conversion is needed since the data was collected in the 2 column format: frequency, spectrum(W).