I turned ON the laser at the X end station, which had been OFF for several weeks because of the crane business.

Now the green beam hits the ITMX and I got a reflection back to the end table.   

This green beam will be a nice reference when we install the green periscope in the chamber.

If it's necessary, feel free to correct the alignment of the green beam during my absence.

 With a help from Joe, I made a diagram of the simulated plant for green locking in order to get better understanding and consensus.

Eventually these simulated plants will help us developing (sometimes debugging) the digital control systems.

Here is the diagram which tells us how we will setup and link the control/plant models and on which machine they will be running.

Basically upper side represents the realtime control, and the lower side is the simulated plant.

The models are talking to each other via either a local shared memory (orange line) or the reflective memory network (purple line).

 Each model is stil not systematically named, at some point we have to have an absolute standard for naming the models.

- current model names -

  GCV = Green Control model at Vertex

  GCX(Y) = Green Control model at X (Y) end

  GPV = Green Plant model at Vertex

 - things to be done -

1. let the RFM work

2. revise the old plant models : SUP, SPX(Y) and LSP

 I put some optics to get the green SHG on the PSL table.

Now a green light successfully comes out from the doubling crystal.

Since the optical layout of the PSL table was dramatically changed, I had to re-setup the green SHG stuff. 

 - what I did

I put a steering mirror after the 90/10% pick off mirror, and then a half wave plate and a convex lens.

The lens is approximately on the right place.

 To get the green beam easily, temporarily I raised the current of the NPRO up to 2 A.

I connected the oven to the heat controller, set the temperature to 36.8 deg which is the set point previously used.

After putting and aligning the oven, I finally obtained the green beam.

At the end of the work I set the NPRO current back to 0.9 A and relocked the PMC.

- things to be done

 1. more precise mode matching

 2. optimization of the temperature 

I improved the mode matching of the incident beam to the doubling crystal on the PSL table.

As a result it apparently got better (i.e. brighter green beam), but it's not the best because now the beam is a little too tightly focused on the crystal. 

I am going to work on it again someday after seeing the beat note signal.

- The measured waist sizes are

    41.94 [um] for vertical mode

   42.20 [um] for horizontal mode

while the optimum waist size is 50 um (see entry #3330).

The plot below shows the beam scan data which I took after improving the mode match.

[ Kevin and Kiwamu ]

 We made the setup for the green PLL stuff on the PSL table.

 Now the two green beams are happily going to the RFPD.

Tomorrow we try to catch the beat note signal 

  - - - what we did

 * took the two light doors out from the OMC and the MC chamber in order to let the green light go through there.

 * using aluminum foils we covered the space between the OMC and the MC chamber in order to protect from dust

 * aligned the steering mirrors inside of the chamber because the height of the green light coming out from the chamber had been a little bit low at the PSL table.

 * at the PSL table we put several steering mirrors and a beam splitter which combines the two green lights

 * installed Hartmut's RFPD and applied -150V bias on it.

 * put a lens on each path of the green beam in order to make the beam size approximately the same at the RFPD

 * closed the light doors

- - - Notes

 * At the beginning, an output signal from the RFPD was pretty small ( less than 1mV at DC ), so I replaced a feedback resistor that was 241 Ohm by 24 kOhm.

   As a result the signal became about 10mV when the green lights go into the PD.

* Actually the power of the green beams are so weak.

  I measured them by using a Newport power meter, it said something like 4 uW for both of the green lights. 

  One of the reasons is that the transmitted light from the PMC which generates one of the green lights is already weak. It's about 480 mW ( while more than 600 mW was reflected by the PMC ! ).

  I am going to make sure if these numbers are reasonable or not.

 I made some KAIZENs (what does kaizen mean ? ) for the PSL green setup.

I replaced the lenses for the modematching of the two green lights at the PSL table, and the beams now look pretty identical.

Also I tuned the temperature setpoint of the doubling crystal and eventually the green light increased to 14 uW at the PSL table.

Once I finish the modification of the RFPD tomorrow, I am going to search for the beat note signal.

( details )

 - In-vac green mirrors

   I found one of the green steering mirror, which stands at the corner of the MC table, was clipping the green light.

  So I steered another mirror, which sends the beam to the clipping mirror after the downward periscope.

 I touched also the last steering mirror in the OMC chamber to correct the alignment.

 - temperature of the doubling crystal

   I took a quick temperature scan in order to find an optimum point for the crystal temperature.

  The scan was performed by just turning the heater off after I heated up the crystal up to 40 deg. 

  Using the NewPort power meter I found the optimum point around 37.3 deg. So I set the temperature to that point.

 - mode matching lenses

 As written in this entry , Kevin and I had put some lenses to make the two green beam almost the same size at the RFPD.

 But today while I was checking these mode-profiles by using a sensor card, I found they were not so matched.

 Therefore I replaced these lenses to match them more.

The idea of this replacement is t to let them have a long Rayleigh range, such that they can efficiently and easily interfere because of the flatness of their wave fronts along a distant.

 For the green light from the chamber, I put one more lens to form a Keplerian beam shrinker (see here about the Keplerian lens configuration).

 They look pretty identical now.

 I did a health check for a 80MHz VCO box. 

I started taking care with the black VCO box, which has been sitting on the SP table and will be used for converting the green beat signal from frequency to voltage.

The circuit in the box basically consists of three parts: low pass filters (LPFs), a VCO and RF amplifiers.

Today I checked the LPF stage. It looks pretty healthy.

Tomorrow I will check the VCO part, especially I am curious about the VCO range.

 (soldering)

 Since somebody ( surf students ?) removed some resistors, the VCO was just freely running without being applied any voltage.

I put some resistors back on the circuit board by soldering them.

Now the resistors are placed in the same configuration as the original schematic (link to LIGO DCC) except for the wideband signal path, which has a differential input.

I left the wideband path disconnected from the VCO.

(transfer function measurement)

The LPF part in 'external mod' path contains two stages in series:

one is for cutting off demodulated signals above fc=80MHz and the other one is for PLL servo with pole=1Hz, zero=40Hz.

In order to activate this path I shorted 10th pin of the analog switch: MAX333A.

During the transfer function measurement I injected signals to 'external mod' input and took the output signal from a test point pin TP7.

The plot below shows a fitting result of the measured transfer function of the whole LPF stage. I used liso for the fitting.

The measured filter's shape agreed with the design. (though I haven't checked 80MHz cut off)

(Kiwamu, Yuta)

Background:
  For green locking, we are planning to feedback frequency differential signal to ETM suspension for the final configuration.
  We don't have ETM suspension control system right now, so we are going to feedback the signal to X-end laser frequency for a test.
  We have two loops for the servo;
    1. coarse locking using frequency counter, feeding back to the laser temperature
    2. using VCO, feeding back to the laser PZT
  Today, we checked frequency counter SR620 and see how to get the small beat note signal(-48dBm; see elog #3771).

What we did:
  1. Using Marconi(RF signal generator), put RF signals to SR620 and see how small signal SR620 can see.
    It depends on the frequency. For 80MHz signal, you need more than about -9dBm.
       60MHz  >-12dBm
       70MHz  >-10dBm
       80MHz  >-9dBm
       90MHz  >-8dBm
      100MHz  >-7dBm

Since we are going to lock the frequency difference between X-end and PSL to 80MHz, we need at least +40dBm amp before putting the signal into SR620.

RF amplifier ZHL-32A has around +28dBm +28dB gain at 80MHz, so we need 2 of them.

  2. Marconi -> ZHL-32A -> ZHL-32A -> SR620 and see how small 80MHz signal SR620 can see.
    Around -68dBm. This should be enough.

  3. SR620 has "STRIP CHART" output on the rear panel. The output voltage is proportional to the mean frequency of the input.
    The output range is 0-8V. So in order to get 4V for 80MHz, set SCALE to 20MHz.

Plan:
 - find green beat again and see if SR620 can see it with double ZHL-32A configuration

ZHL-32A is a high power (well..., actually middle power) amplifier with the max output power of +29dBm (~1W!).
It seems to be overkill.
Your signal is so small so you don't need ZHL-32A, but can use small amp which we may have somewhere in the lab.

And the description:
"RF amplifier ZHL-32A has around +28dBm gain at 80MHz"
The unit is wrong.

Background:
  Yesterday, I said I will use ZHL-32A for amplifying beat note signal, but as Koji pointed out, ZHL-32A is for medium high power.
  So I changed my mind to use ZFL-1000LN instead. ZFL-1000LN is a low noise RF amp whose maximum power is 3dBm.
  Also, we included a splitter in our consideration.

What I did:
1. Set up a new setup. ZFL-1000LN has a gain of +24dB at 80MHz and splitter ZFRSC-42 has a loss of -6dB. So;

beat note signal -> ZFL-1000LN -> ZFL-1000LN -> ZFRSC-42 => SR620 and VCO

2. Measured frequency-output relation. When the input signal was 80MHz -48dBm, the output was -8.7dBm. For other frequencies;
       60MHz  -3.3dBm
       70MHz  -5.7dBm
       80MHz  -8.7dBm
       90MHz  -5.5dBm
      100MHz  -3.5dBm
  So, we can see frequency up to >100MHz by SR620 using this setup.

3. Checked harmonics peak levels of the output using an RF spectrum analyzer. When the input signal was 80MHz -48dBm, the height of the peaks were;
     80MHz -8.8dBm
    160MHz -30dBm
    240MHz -42dBm
  Other peaks were smaller than the 3rd harmonics. Also, RF PD that detects beat note signal has a cut-off frequency at around 100MHz. So, we don't need to worry about wave transformation for this setup.

Yes. I corrected my previous elog.

 I calibrated the VCO frequency as a function of the applied input voltage.

The range is approximately +/- 5 MHz, which is large enough to cover the arm's FSR of 3.75MHz.

======== measured parameters ======

center frequency: 79.5 MHz

VCO range: 74MHz - 84MHz

coefficient : 1.22MHz/ V (+/- 2V range)

nominal RF power: -0.66 dBm

(Note: The measurement was done by using Giga-tronics hand-hold power meter.)

P.S. There is a document about the 80MHz VCO box. This may be helpful. 

link to LIGO DCC

(Kiwamu, Yuta)

We succeeded in coarse locking the green beat frequency, using a frequency counter and feeding back the signal to the X-end laser temperature.

Setup:
  beat note -> RF PD -> SHP-25 -> SLP-100 -> ZFL-1000LN -> ZFL-1000LN -> ZFL-500LN -> ZFRSC-42 -> SBP-70 -> ZFRSC-42 -> SR620 -> c1psl(C1:PSL-126MOPA_126MON)
  c1auxey(C1:LSC-EX_GREENLASER_TEMP) -> X-end laser temp

  The frequency counter SR620 converts the beat frequency to voltage.
  We added some filters (SHP-25, SLP-100, SBP-70). Otherwise, SR620 doesn't count the frequency correctly.

What we did:
  1. Getting green beat note again
     Set PSL laser temp to 31.81 °C and X-end laser temp to 37.89 °C.
     Set PPKTP crystal temp to 37.6 °C, which maximizes output green beam power.

  2. ADC channel and DAC channel
     Disconnected one channel going into VME-3123 (at 1X1) and used c1psl's C1:PSL-126MOPA_126MON as ADC channel for the output from SR-620
     Made a new DAC channel on c1auxey named C1:LSC-EX_GREENLASER_TEMP, and disconnected one channel from VME-4116 (at 1X9) to use it as DAC channel for X-end laser temperature control.

  3. Coarse lock by ezcaservo
     Ran;
        ezcaservo C1:PSL-126MOPA_126MON -s 150 -g -0.0001 C1:LSC-EX_GREENLASER_TEMP
     "-s" option is a set value. The command locks C1:PSL-126MOPA_126MON to 150 (in counts), using 0Hz pole integrator.

Result:
  The beat frequency locked on to ~77MHz. The frequency fluctuation of the beat note during the servo is ~3MHz with ~10sec timescale.
  VCO has  ~+/-5MHz range, so this coarse locking meets the requirement.

  Here's a plot of the error signal and feed back signal;
 

Wow! Great guys!!

Can I expect to see the spectra of the frequency counter output with and without the servo?

RA: I think the SBP-70 is a bad idea. It limits the capture range. So does the SHP-25. You should instead just use a DC-block; the SR620 should work from 1-200 MHz with no problems.

Also, we have to figure out a better solution for the DAC at the ends: we cannot steal the QPD gain slider in the long run and the 4116 DAC at the ends has all 8 channels used up. Should we get the purple box for testing or should we try to use the fast DAC in the EX IO chassis as the actuator?

I measured the open loop transfer function of the 80MHz VCO's PLL while locking it to Marconi.

 This measurement is for a health check and a characterization of the PLL

The transfer function looks good, it agrees with the designed filter shape.

(measurement setup) 

 The frequency of Marconi is set to 79.5MHz which is the center frequency of the VCO.

The signal from Marconi is mixed down with the VCO signal at a mixer ZLW-3SH.

Then the demodulated signal goes to a 80MHz LPF to cut off high frequency components.

And it goes through a control filter which has 1Hz pole and 40Hz zero (see this entry).

The 80MHz LPF, the controls filter, the VCO and the RF amplifier are all built in the box.

 In order to measure the open loop transfer function I inserted SR560 before the 80MHz LPF.

Using T-splitters the input and the output of SR560 are connected to a spectrum analyzer SR785.

(results)

 Exciting the system using a source channel of SR785, I measured the open loop transfer function.

The unity gain frequency was measured to about 20 kHz.

It agrees with the designed filter shape (though the gain factor is a little bit underestimated).

Apparently there is a phase delay at high frequency above 10kHz, but it is okay because the phase margin is quite acceptable up to 100kHz.

However I found that the control range was quite narrow.

The PLL was able to be kept in only +/- 1MHz range, this fact was confirmed by shifting the frequency of Marconi during it's locked.

I will post another elog entry about this issue.

 (notes)

 Marconi power = 6dBm

 VCO power after RF amp. = -0.6 dBm

 Marconi frequency = 79.5 MHz

 Phase detection coefficient = 0.4 V/rad (measured by using an oscillo scope)

Bad; there should be a passive ~1 MHz LP filter between the mixer and anything that comes after. The SR560 + mixer does not equal a demodulator.

The hold-in range of the PLL must be greater than +/- 4MHz in order to bring the arm cavity to its resonance. 

(Hold-in range is the range of frequencies over which the PLL can track the input signal.)

However as I mentioned in the past elog (see this entry), the PLL showed a small hold-in range of about +/- 1MHz which is insufficient.

In this entry I explain what is the limitation factor for the hold-in range and how to enlarge the range.

(Requirement for hold-in range )

 We have to track the frequency of the green beat signal and finally bring it to a certain frequency by controlling the cavity length of the arm.

For this purpose we must be able to track the beat signal at least over the frequency range of 2*FSR ~ +/- 4MHz.

Then we will be able to have more than two resonances, in which both the end green and the PSL green are able to resonate  to the arm at the same time. 

And if we have just two resonances in the range, either one of two resonances gives a resonance for both IR and green. At this phase we just bring it to that frequency while tracking it.

  Theoretically this requirement can be cleared by using our VCO because the VCO can drive the frequency up to approximately +/- 5MHz (see this entry)

 The figure below is an example of resonant condition of green and IR. The VCO range should contain at least one resonance for IR.

(In the plot L=38.4m is assumed)

(an issue) 

However the measured hold-in range was about +/- 1MHz or less. This is obviously not large enough.

According to a textbook[1], this fact is easily understandable.

The hold-in range is actually limited by gains of all the components such as a phase detector's, a control filter's and a VCO's gain.

Finally it is going to be expressed by,

                         [hold-in range] = G_pd * G_filter * G_vco

 At the PD (Phase Detector which is a mixer in our case) the signal does not exceed G_pd [V] because it appears as G_pd * sin(phi).

When the input signal is at the edge of the hold-in range, the PD gives its maximum voltage of G_pd to maintain the lock.

Consequently the voltage G_pd [V] goes through to G_filter [V/V] and G_vco [Hz/V].

This chain results the maximum pushable frequency, that is, hold-in range given above equation.

In our case, the estimated hold-in range was 

                      [hold-in range] ~ 0.4 [V] * 3 [V/V] * 1 [MHz/V]

                          = 1.2 [MHz]

This number reasonably explains what I saw.

In order to enlarge the hold-in range, increase the gain by more than factor of 5. That's it.

* reference [1]  "Phase-Locked Loops 6th edition" Rolan E. Best

In order to enlarge the hold-in range I modified the control filter and increased the gain by factor of 25 in the PLL.

It successfully enlarged the range, however the lock was easily broken by a small frequency change.

So I put a low frequency boost (LFB) and it successfully engaged the PLL stiffer.

Now it can maintain the lock even when the frequency disturbance of about 1MHz/s is applied.

(enlargement of the hold-in range)

I modified the control filter by replacing some resistors in the circuit to increase the gain by factor of 25.

        - R18 390 [Ohm]  => 200 [Ohm]

    - R20 1000 [Ohm] => 5000 [Ohm]

    - R41 39 [Ohm] => 10 [Ohm]

 This replacement also changes the location of the pole and the zero

    - pole 1.5 [Hz] => 0.3 [Hz]

    - zero 40 [Hz] => 159 [Hz]

 Note that this replacement doesn't so much change the UGF which was about 20 kHz before.

It becomes able to track the input frequency range of +/- 5MHz if I slowly changes the frequency of the input signal. 

However the PLL is not so strong enough to track ~ 1 kHz / 0.1s frequency step.  

(make the PLL stiffer : a low frequency boost)

One of the solution to make the PLL stiffer is to put a boost filter in the loop.

I used another channel to more drive the VCO at low frequency. See the figure below.

The 80MHz VCO box originally has two input channels, one of these inputs was usually disabled by MAX333A.

This time I activated both two input channels and put the input signal to each of them.

Before signals go to the box, one of the signal path is filtered by SR560. The filter has G=20000, pole=0.3Hz. So it gives a big low frequency boost.

Once the PLL was achieved without the boost, I increased the filter gain of SR560 to 20000 because locking with the boost is difficult as usual.

 I've set up a PID script that senses the EX-PSL Green Beat note (from the frequency counter) and actuates on the temperature of the end laser to drive the beat note to a given setpoint.

• I've added the necessary EPICS channels to c1iscaux and rebooted it so that the channels are live. They are listed in a new database file slow_grnx_pid.db
• This database was added to the list of those loaded by startup.cmd.  
• The PID script, GRNXSlowServo, is just a modified version of FSSSlowServo.
• The version I've been running is currently in /cvs/cds/caltech/users/abrooks/.
• There's also an MEDM screen in this directoy, C1LSC_EX_GRN_SLOW.adl, there that shows the PID settings.

Right now the script only passes the initial sanities checks, that is:

1. It runs.
2. You can enable/disable it without any errors and it starts actuating.

The settings all need to be tuned up - e.g. maximum_increment, hard_stops, time_step, PID constants.

Additionally, the units in the whole thing are pretty useless - some of the channels are in VOLTS, others in WATTS. I'd like to change all these to be in Hz. 

EPICS channels added:

• grecord(ao,"C1:LSC-EX_GRN_SLOWKD")
• grecord(ao,"C1:LSC-EX_GRN_SLOWKP")
• grecord(ao,"C1:LSC-EX_GRN_SLOWKI")
• grecord(ao,"C1:LSC-EX_GRN_PID_SETPT")
• grecord(ao,"C1:LSC-EX_GRN_TIMEOUT")
• grecord(stringin,"C1:LSC-EX_GRN_SLOWVERSION")
• grecord(bi,"C1:LSC-EX_GRN_SLOWLOOP")
• grecord(bi,"C1:LSC-EX_GRN_DEBUG")
• grecord(bi,"C1:LSC-EX_GRN_SLOWBEAT")

Stabilizing the beat note frequency using Yuta's temperature servo (see this entry)

I was able to acquire the PLL of 80MHz VCO to the real green signal.

Some more details will be posted later.

 I checked the slow servo and the PLL of 80MHz VCO using the real green beat note signal.

 The end laser is not locked to the cavity, so basically the beat signal represents just the frequency fluctuation of the two freely running lasers.

 The PLL was happily locked to the green beat note although I haven't fedback the VCO signal to ETMX (or the temperature of the end laser).

 It looks like we still need some more efforts for the frequency counter's slow servo because it increases the frequency fluctuation around 20-30mHz.

 (slow servo using frequency counter)

   As Yuta did before (see his entry), I plugged the output of the frequency counter to an ADC and fedback the signal to the end laser temperature via ezcaservo.

The peak height of the beat note is bigger than before due to the improvement of the PMC mode matching.

The peak height shown on the spectrum analyzer 8591E is now about -39dBm which is 9dB improvement. 

     The figure below is a spectra of the frequency counter's readout taken by the spectrum analyzer SR785.

When the slow temperature servo is locked, the noise around 20-30 mHz increased.

I think this is true, because I was able to see the peak slowly wobbling for a timescale of ~ 1min. when it's locked.

But this servo is still useful because it drifts by ~5MHz in ~10-20min without the servo.

Next time we will work on this slow servo using Aidan's PID control (see this entry) in order to optimize the performance.

In addition to that, I will take the same spectra by using the phase locked VCO, which provides cleaner signal.

(acquisition of the PLL)

 In order to extract a frequency information more precisely than the frequency counter, we are going to employ 80MHz VCO box.

 While the beat note was locked at ~ 79MHz by the slow servo, I successfully acquired the PLL to the beat signal.

 However at the beginning, the PLL was easily broken by a sudden frequency step of about 5MHz/s (!!).

I turned off the low noise amplifier which currently drives the NPRO via a high-voltage amplifier, then the sudden frequency steps disappeared.

After this modification the PLL was able to keep tracking the beat signal for more than 5min.

(I was not patient enough, so I couldn't stand watching the signal more than 5min... I will hook this to an ADC)

 [Aidan, Kiwamu]

Kiwamu and I roughly calibrated the analogue output from the SR620 frequency counter yesterday. The input channel, intuitively named C1:PSL-126MOPA_126MON, now reads the measured frequency in MHz with an error of about 0.1MHz - this is, I think, due to the bit noise on the D/A conversion that Kiwamu discovered earlier. That is, the output range of the SR620 corresponds to around 100MHz and is digitized at 10-bit resolution, and ...

100MHz/(10^2) ~= 0.098MHz. [Sad Face]

Calibration:

We set the EPICS range to [-100, 100] (corresponding to [-5V, 5V]), connected a Marconi to the Freq Counter, input a variety of different frequencies and measured the counts on the EPICS channel.

The linear fit to the calibration data was F = 2.006*EPICScount - 0.2942. From this we worked out the maximum and the minimum for the range settings that give the channel in MHz: EGUF = -200.8942 and EGUL = 200.3058. The previous range was [-410, 410]

I restored C1:PSL-126MOPA_126MON to its original settings (EGUF = -410, EGUL = 410) and added a new calc channel called C1:LSC-EX_GRNBEAT_FREQ that is derived from C1:PSL-126MOPA_126MON. The calibration in the new channel converts the input to MHz.

grecord(calc, "C1:LSC-EX_GRNBEAT_FREQ")
{
        field(DESC,"EX-PSL Green Beat Note Frequency")
        field(SCAN, ".1 second")
        field(INPA,"C1:PSL-126MOPA_126MON")
        field(PREC,"4")
        field(CALC,"0.4878*A")
        }

I rebooted c1psl and burtrestored.

The PID loop is ready to be run on the green beat note but, since the tanks are open, there is no green transmission from the end getting to the PSL table. Nevertheless, here's the screen for the PID loop. The loop script is still in my directory /cvs/cds/caltech/users/abrooks/GRNXSlowServo

The medm screen is attached. It shows the current beat note frequency in MHz ()

In c1auxey/ETMYaux.db I added a couple of channels. These are all displayed on the MEDM screen. I added them to autoBurt.req as well.

• C1:LSC-EX_GRNLSR_TEMP_NOM: the zero-volt setpoint temperature of the end laser (as set on the front panel of the Mephisto controller). This must be entered manually in EPICS as there is no way to read it remotely. [Sad Face]
• C1:LSC-EX_GRNLSR_TEMP_CALC: the sum of the zero-volt set point temperature and the offset temperature set by the input voltage from C1:LSC-EX_GREENLASER_TEMP

I rebooted c1auxey to get these to work.

Once we get the green beat back again, the PID loop should servo on the end laser temperature to drive the Beat Frequency to the Frequency Setpoint, C1:LSC-EX_GRN_PID_SETPT, which can be set by the pink slider.

RA: All MEDM screens must be in the proper MEDM directory!! Also, all perl scripts must have a .pl extension!!! Also, all scripts must be in the scripts directory even if they are in development!!! And all scripts should use 'env' rather than have absolute pathnames for the location of perl, csh, tcsh, python, etc.

 That's not unreasonable. But if we try 

 grep "perl" /cvs/cds/rtcds/caltech/c1/scripts/*/* 

you can see that we've got a fair amount of housekeeping to attend to. We might want to think about tidying up the scripts directory as part of the cds upgrade.

 As I said in the past entry (see this entry), there was unknown loss of about 20dB in the beat detection path.

So I started fully characterizing the beat detection path. 

Today I measured the frequency response of the wideband RFPD using the Jenne Laser.

Since all the data were taken by using a 1064nm laser, the absolute magnitudes [V/W] for 532nm are not calibrated yet.  

I will calibrate the absolute values with a green laser which has a known power.

The data were taken by changing the bias voltage from -150V to 0V.

The shape of the transfer function looks quite similar to that Hartmut measured before (see the entry).

It has 100MHz bandwidth when the bias voltage is -150V, which is our normal operation point.

Theoretically the transfer function must keep flat at lower frequency down to DC.

Therefore for the calibration of this data, we can use the DC signal when a green beam with a known power is illuminating the PD.

As a part of the characterization works, I measured the spectra of the RFPD noise as well. 

The noise is totally dominated by that of the RFPD (i.e. not by an RF amplifier).

I am going to check the noise curve by comparing with a LISO model (or a simple analytical model) in order to make sure the noise is reasonable.

 (results) 

The red curve represents the dark noise of the RFPD, which is amplified by a low noise amp, ZFL-1000LN.

The blue curve is a noise of only ZFL-1000LN with a 50 Ohm terminator at its input.

The last curve is noise of the network analyzer AG4395A itself.

It is clear that the noise is dominated by that of RFPD. It has a broad hill around 100MHz and a spike at 16MHz.

(notes)

Gain of ZFL-1000LN   = 25.5 dB (measured)

Applied voltage to ZFL-1000LN = +15.0 V

Bias voltage on PD = -150 V

I succeeded in locking the end green laser to X arm with the new ETM.

Though the lock is still not so stable compared to the previous locking with the old ETM. Also the beam centering is quite bad now.

So I will keep working on the end green lock a little bit more.

Once the lock gets improved and becomes reasonably stiff, we will move onto the corner PLL experiment.

(to do)

 - beam centering on ITMX

 - check the mode matching

 - revise the control servo

 [Suresh and Kiwamu]

We aligned the green beam to the X arm cavity more carefully.

Now the green beam is hitting the centers of ETMX, ITMX and BS.

Also we confirmed that the green beam successfully comes out from the chamber to the PSL table.

(what we did)

- opened the BS, ITMX and ETMX chambers. 

- checked the positions of the beam spots on ITMX, BS and ETMX

   The spot position on ETMX was fine,

   But at BS and ITMX, the spots were off downward.

   We decided to move the beam angle by touching a steering mirror at the end green setup.

- changed the beam axis by touching the steering mirror at the end station.

- checked the spot positions again, they all became good. It looks the errors were within ~ 1mm.

- moved the position of a TT, which is sitting behind the BS, by ~10mm, because it was almost clliping the beam.

- aligned the green optics

- got the beam coming out from the chamber. 

I gave a christmas present to a doubling oven who has been sitting on the PSL table.

The below is a picture of the present I gave. It's a base plate for the doubling oven, made from a block of aluminum, and black-anodized.

The size and the shape are nicely tailored for the combination of the Newfocus kinematic mount and the Covesion oven.

The design had been done by using Solid Works 2010

Here is a picture before he got the present.

Now he looks pretty happy.

This is not such a bad base design, but remember that we have to get a couple of parts with the purple anodize to see if there is a difference between black and purple in terms of the 532 nm reflectivity.

[Kiwamu, Jenne]

We went this evening in search of a beat note signal between the Xarm transmitted green light and the PSL doubled green light. 

First, we removed our new ETMX camera (we left the mount so it should be easy to put back) from the other day.   We left the test masses exactly where they had been while flashing for IR, so even though we can no longer confirm, we expect that the IR beam axis hasn't changed.  We used the steering mirror on the end table to align the green beam to the cavity.  We turned on the loop to lock the end laser to the cavity, and achieved green lock of the arm.

Then we went to the PSL table to overlap the arm transmitted light with the PSL doubled light.  We made a few changes to the optics that take the arm transmitted light over to the PD.  We found that the arm transmitted light was very high, so we changed from having one steering mirror to having 3 (for table space / geometry reasons we needed 3, not just 2) in order to lower the beam axis.  We also found that the spot size of the arm transmitted beam was ~2x too small, so we changed the mode matching telescope from a 4x reducer to a 2x reducer by changing the 2nd lens from f=50mm to f=100mm (the first lens is f=200mm).  We made the arm transmitted beam and the PSL green beam overlap, but we saw no peak on the spectrum analyzer. 

We checked the temperature of the PSL and end lasers, and determined that we needed to adjust the set temp of the end laser.  However, we still didn't find any beat note.

We then tweaked the temperature of the doubling oven at the end station, to maximize the power transmitted, since Kiwamu said that that had worked in the past.  Alas, no success tonight.

We're stopping for the evening, with the success of reacquiring green lock of the Xarm.

 I summarized how we proceed our green locking in this month on the wiki.

Since step1 and 2 shown on the wiki are mostly done apparently, so we will move on to step 3-D and 3-E.

A short term target in the coming couple of days is to phase lock the VCO to the beat note.

 I connected the PLL signal to the ADC on c1ioo. 

So now we are able to take the data into the digital world, and will be able to feedback signals to the suspensions.

 The output signal from the VCO box goes to a black beakout board on 1X2 rack though a BNC cable.  

Then the signal comes out from the back side of the board with DB39 style, so I put a DB39 to SCSI adapter so that we can take it to the IO chasis.

Now the SCSI is connected to ADC_1 (the second ADC card) on the IO chasis at 1X1. 

  Additionally I modified the green locking simulink model, C1GCV, in order to pick the right ADC channels.

A medm screen for green locking is now under the construction. I put a link on the sitemap screen, so anyone can look at the half-baked green locking screen.

Any comments and suggestions are really welcome.

I realized that the black AA board I mentioned on the last entry has the same range issue as Valera reported before (see #3911). 

Basically our ADC card has +/- 10V input range, but on the other hand the AA board is already limited by approximately +/- 2V.

We have to fix it.

 [Suresh, Kiwamu]

  We did the following things:

     - installed a 1/10 voltage divider such that the signal won't be saturated at the AA board (see here)

     - put a Ithaco preamplifier 1201 as a whitening filter

     - checked the entire beat detection system without using the real beat note

Here are some items to be done before the sun goes down tomorrow:

       - calibration of ADC and the interfaces including the voltage divider and the whitening filter.

     - fine matching of unwhitening filter at the digital side

         - PLL response measurement ( freq to voltage response ) over the frequency range of interest

         - plotting an well calibrated spectrum of the PLL output 

(whitening filter)

The Ithaco 1201 was setup to have a zero at 0 Hz and two poles at 0.1 Hz and 10 Hz in order to emphasize the signal over the frequency range of interest.

Around 1Hz it is supposed to have a gain of 1000. These settings have done by tweaking the knobs on the front panel of the Ithaco 1201.

In addition to that, we made an unwhitening filter in digital filter banks. This filter was designed to cancel the analog whitening filter.

(system check) 

 To check the entire beat detection system, we phase-locked the VCO to a Marconi running at 80 MHz, which is the center frequency of the VCO.

Then we imposed a frequency modulation on the Marconi to see if the signal is acquired to ADC successfully or not. It's quite healthy.

According to the spectra corrected by the unwhitening filter, we confirmed that the noise floor at 1Hz is order of 1Hz/sqrt Hz, which is already quite good.

Then we took several spectra while putting a modulation on the Marconi at a different frequency in each measurement.

The peak due to the artificial modulation essentially works as a calibration peak in the spectra.

So in this way we briefly checked the flatness of the response of the system in the frequency domain.

As a result we found that the response is not perfectly flat in the range of 0.05 - 30Hz, probably due to a mismatch of the combination of the whitening and unwhitening filters.

We will check it tomorrow.

[Kiwamu, Suresh, Rana]

Our goal:

        We wished to determine the performance of the VCO PLL at low frequencies,. 

The procedure we followed:

        The scheme is to use the Marconi (locked to Rb Clock) as an 80MHz reference and lock to it using the PLL. 

        We set up the VCO PLL as in the diagram shown in the attachment and obtained the spectra shown below.

Results:

          We need to figure out the PLL servo gain profile in order to build the Inv PLL filter....

Damn. If this figure is true, we were looking at wrong signal. We should look at the feedback signal to the VCO.

[Rana, Suresh, Kiwanu]

 We did the following things:

   *  taking the VCO stability data from the error signal instead of the feedback

   *  tried calibrating the signal but confused

   *  increased the modulation depth of the green end PDH.

--

 We found that a cable coming out from the VCO box was quite touchy. This cable was used for taking the feedback signal.

When we touched the cable it made a big noise in the feedback. So we decided to remove the cable and take the signal from the error point (i.e. just after the mixer and the LPF.)

In order to correct that signal to the one in terms of the feedback signal, we put a digital filter which is exactly the same as that of the PLL (pole at 1.5 Hz, zero at 40 Hz, G=1) .

However for some reasons the signal shown in the digital side looked completely mis-calibrated by ~ 100. We have no idea what is going on.

Anyway we are taking the data over tonight because we can correct the signal later. The 2nd round data started from AM1:40

What is the point to use the error instead of the feedback? It does not make sense to me.

If the cable is flaky why we don't solder it on the circuit? Why we don't put a buffer just after the test point?

It does not make sense to obtain the error signal in order to estimate the freeruning noise without the precise loop characterization.
(i.e. THE FEEDBACK LOOP TRINITY: Spectrum, Openloop, Calibration)

RA: I agree that feedback would be better because we could use it without much calibration. But the only difference between the "error signal" and the "feedback signal" in this case is a 1.6:40 pole:zero stage with DC gain of 0 dB. So we can't actually use either one without calibration and the gain between these two places is almost the same so they are both equally bad for the SNR of the measurement. I think that Suresh and Kiwamu are diligently reading about PLLs and will have a more quantitative result on Monday afternoon.

I succeeded in green-locking the X arm by feeding back the beat signal to ETMX.

Here are some quick reports. Some more details will be posted tomorrow.

The below shows a time series data of the PLL feedback signal when the servo was acquiring the lock.

At t = -2 sec. I started feeding back the signal to ETMX with the gain 50 times smaller than its nominal.

Then at t = 0 sec.I switched on a low frequency boost (pole 0.1Hz and zero 1Hz) to make it more robust.

At t = 3 sec. I increased the gain to the nominal.

Finally the UGF became ~ 60 Hz according to my open loop measurement by diaggui.

However I couldn't make the UGF higher than 60Hz because the more gain caused a instability for some reasons.

Here is a diagram for the green locking.

I used the same VCO box as we setup on the last Friday (see #4189).

Very cool.

But the PLL seems very fishy to me. The ZP-3MH needs 13 dBm to operate correctly. You should change the MODLEVEL input of the VCO so as to make the LO input of the mixer go up to 13 dBm. Then the input from the PD should be ~0 dBm.

Also, the PLL diagram seems to show that you have a 1/f^2 loop: 1/f from the SR560 and 1/f from the Hz->rad conversion ??

Well... The ALS loop is engaged and the error was suppressed.
So, how is the IR error signal stabilized when the IR is brought in to the resonance?

I can see the linear trend of 0.1V/s from 5s to 10s.  This corresponds to 100kHz/s and 13nm
for the residual beat drift and the arm length motion, respectively. That sounds huge. The DC gain must be increased.

Well, the diagram I drew is true. I also have been confused by this 1/f^2 issue in our PLL.

As Rana pointed out, the open-loop TF should become 1/f^2 over most of the frequency range, but it still remains 1/f above 5kHz for some reasons. 

 Need more investigations.

 At the beginning I tried phase-locking the VCO to the beat note without any external filters (i.e. SR560 see here), but I never succeeded.

It was because the hold-in range of the PLL was not sufficiently wide, it could stay locked within frequency range of less than +/- 1MHz from the center frequency of 80 MHz.

This is obviously not good, because the beat note typically fluctuates by more than +/- 3MHz in time scale of 1 sec or so.

  So I decided to put an external filter, SR560,  in order to have a larger DC gain and a higher UGF.

Somehow I unconsciously tuned the SR560 to have a pole at 1Hz with the gain of 2000, which shouldn't work in principle because the open-loop will be 1/f^2.

However I found that the PLL became more robust, in fact it can track the input frequency range of +/- 5MHz.

The open-loop TF is shown above. For comparison I plotted also the open-loop TF wehn it's without the SR560.

I checked the frequency of the VCO output when it was phase-locked to a Marconi, it was healthy (i.e. the same frequency as the input signal from Marconi).

 I haven't yet taken any data for the IR fluctuation when the Xarm is locked by the green locking.

You are right, the DC drift was due to a lack of the DC gain. But don't worry about that, because this issue has been solved.

(DC gain issue)

  The lack of DC gain was because I put an IIR filter called ''DC block" that I made. It has 1/f shape below 30mHz and becomes flat above it.

The purpose of this filter was to avoid a DC kick when it starts feeding back to ETMX.

Usually the output signal from the PLL has an offset, typically ~5V, then this offset is also acquired into the ADC and eventually kicks ETMX through the feedback.

So when I took the time series data I enabled the 'DC block', that's why it drifts slowly.

 After taking the time series, I found that without this 'DC block' technique, the lock can be achieved by appropriately subtracting the offsets with epics numerical values.

This subtraction technique, of course, gave me more stable lock at DC.

(open loop transfer function)

Here is the open-loop TF of the arm locking I measured last night:

The IIR filter chain has the following poles and zeros:

     pole 0.1Hz, 1000Hz,

   zero 1Hz, 30Hz

For the fitting I assume that the ETMX pendulum has a resonance at 1Hz with Q of 5. Also I put the cavity pole at 24 kHz, assuming the finesse is 80 at 532 nm.

I just fitted the gain and the time delay by my eyes.

If I believe the result of the fitting, whole time delay is 330 usec, which sounds pretty large to me.

I scanned the X arm by changing an offset for the feedback to ETMX while the arm stayed locked by the green locking.

But the resultant plot is still far away from a beautiful one.

Changing the offset broke the lock frequently, so eventually I couldn't measure the stability of the IR-PDH signal at the resonance. 

 The plot above is a result of the scanning. You can see there is a clear resonance at the center of the plot.

However the lock frequently became unstable when I was changing the offset.

It looked like this unstability came from the end PDH lock. I guess there are two possible reasons:

  (1)  feedback range for the laser PZT is not wide enough. Right now the range is limited by a SR560, which has been used for a summing amplifier.

  (2)  Length to Alignment coupling. Pushing ETMX causes a misalignment.

The issue (1) can be easily solved by engaging the temperature feedback, which helps actuating the laser frequency a lot at DC.

The issue (2) will be also solved by well align the IR beam, the arm cavity and the green beam.

Here are some tasks that I want someone to work on during my absence.

1. Y-arm alignment for IR

 Basically we gradually have to move onto the Y-arm locking at some point.

Prior to it we need to align the Y arm for IR. Probably we have to touch PZT1 and PZT2.

It would be very nice if the X-arm alignment also gets improved together with this work. 

2. Temperature feedback with a digital control for X end PDH lock

  Need a temperature feedback not with an analog way but with a digital way because we want to put an offset and the feedback signal at the same time (#4198).

 Right now the temperature control input of the laser is connected to a slow DAC (#3850).

Probably we should plug the feedback signal from the PDH box to the fast ADC (i.e. c1iscex), and then connect a fast DAC to the laser temperature.

This entry maybe helpful.

3. Calibration of optical gain for IR arm locking

 In order to evaluate the performance of the green locking, one of the key points is the IR PDH signal.

Because it tells us how much the motion of the X arm is suppressed at IR when the green lock is engaged.

To get this information in m/sqrtHz, we need to know the optical gain.

4. MC servo characterization and PSL frequency noise measurement

 SInce the green beat note tells us the frequency difference between the MC and the arm in the current configuration, we should know how the MC servo is.

Along with this work, I need someone to measure the PSL frequency noise, when it is locked to the MC over the frequency range from 0.01Hz to 1kHz.

5. PLL characterization 

 Solve this issue (#4195) and make it reliable.

I implemented a slow servo for green laser thermal control on c1scx.mdl. Ch6,7 of ADC and ch6 of DAC are assigned for this servo as below;

Ch6 of ADC: PDH error signal

CH7 of ADC: PZT feedback signal

CH6 of DAC: feedback signal to thermal of green laser

Note that old EPICS themal control cable is not hooked anymore.

I made a simple MEDM screen(...medm/c1scx/master/C1SCX_BCX_SLOW.adl) linked from GREEN medm screen (C1GCV.adl) on sitemap.

During this work, I noticed that some of the epics switch is not recovered by autoburt. What I noticed is filter switch of SUSPOS, SUSPIT, SUSYAW, SDSEN, and all coil output for ETMX.

I had no idea to fix them, probably Joe knows. I guess other suspensitons has the same problems.

1. The dewhitening filter CH6 had no output. I disconnected the cable and put it to the monitor out of the AI filter.
So the dewhitening is not in the loop.

2. I have made a thermal control filter

BANK1: pole 0Hz, zero 1mHz / LF boost stage
BANK2: pole 1mHz, zero 30mHz / LPF stage
BANK3: pole 1Hz, zero 0.1Hz / phase compensation stage
Gain: 0.05

It seems working with the gain of 0.05. As the thermal is very strong, the output has less than 10.
This means the we are effectively only using ~4bit. We need external filter.

Note that output of 30000counts were about 3V at  CH6.

3. Measured End PZT feedback with and without the thermal control. The UGF seems to be 0.2Hz.
The suppression at 10mHz is ~100. This is so far OK.

Whether or not it's as clean as we'd like, it's really nice to see this result with real data.