exp plot tip: If you use the "grid" feature of matplotlib and plt.semilogy(), the exponentials will look like straight lines, so we can just read off the time constants with a ruler.

Also, as we talked about earlier today, we should make some analytical estimates for the various heat loads, and also put them into the model.

For protecting from radiation, all of the surfaces which are NOT shiny-polished should get wrapped in something shiny (UHV Al foil, with the shiny side out).

I suggest wrapping with foil:

1. Baseplate (to keep it from radiating into the cold plate (the tapped work surface))
2. Copper strap (after first wrapping it with a sheet of Mylar to block conduction to the foil). Al foil should be wrapped with shiny side out.
3. Plastic spacers. wrap around the length, but not the ends.
4. Holes in the shields where the thermal strap enters. Edge the holes with a G-10 ring/grommet to prevent touching the straps.

I attach here a photo of the radiative shielding of a Purple Pepper Plant (PPP), to reduce the radiative coupling to the environment. This prevents the soil from drying out in the sun so fast.

Today I pulled the cyro chamber cooling data from the temperature controller. Cooling started on Friday 5/21 around 1:45pm. 

The final temperatures reached at ~3:15pm today were:

outer shield: 253 K

inner shield: 168 K 

heater (off): 151 K 

workpiece: 150 K

The temperature curves (see attached) seem to be leveling off, so I'm not sure things will get too much colder. In the meantime I've reinserted the USB to resume temperature logging. 

[Radhika, Stephen remote]

After leaving the cryocooler's compressor running overnight, Radhika found all RTDs reporting room temperature. The noises coming from the compressor were normal, and all operating conditions were consistent with QIL/2504. However, the cryocooler was silent (valve motor not starting).

It turned out that the cryocooler power cable, unplugged during installation efforts (pictured below), had not been reattached. After turning off the compressor, plugging in the power cable, and turning on the compressor, the cryocooler began making normal noises and apparently operating normally. Radhika reformatted the USB drive collecting data from the temperature controller. 

Cooldown began at 1:45pm today (Friday). We will check in again on Monday.

During these troubleshooting efforts, we referred to the Cryocooler and Compressor manuals, found at the QIL Cryo Vacuum Chamber Wiki.

I've returned the Keithley Source Meter unit
- The unit (Keithley 2450?2460?)
- A power cable
- A pair of banana clips
- the transistor test fixture & triax cable/connectors
 

Following up from Stephen's last post. Today I completed the outstanding tasks he outlined, with the exception of connecting a com cable to record and trend cooldown from the temperature controller. For today's cooldown we are still using the usb flash drive.

The RTD connected to the workpiece (spring clamp) took some wrestling to get stable temp readout, so I had to reclamp it. Other than that, I was able to close up the radiation shields' lids and the chamber lid straight away.

I initially tried pumping down but the backing pump was very loud, not reaching full speed, and pressure wasn't decreasing. Stephen realized the KF joint on the side of the chamber was never sealed up (just wrapped in foil) --> obvious major leak. We didn't have any blanks to seal it up, so I replaced the KF port with a blank flange at the conflat joint.

Ready to pump down once more, I ran into an error message from the turbo pump but performed a power cycle and it disappeared. Pumped down and reached a millitorr before turning on cryocooler.

I plan to pop by tomorrow morning before the cryo meeting and can share consequent updates then.

[Radhika, Stephen]

Good progress toward pumping down, with a setback (impact unknown while we reach out to Karthik).

• Made final connection of copper braid to baseplate. With the current length, we must pull the folded-over braid completely taught. We are shorting on the aperture of the inner shield, but we appear to have clearance from the vacuum skin (checked by hand at the cryocooler joint, checked by eye at the chamber) and the outer shield. We should be able to resolve these issues with the plan for a long rigid copper bar interfacing directly to the cold head, plus a short copper rope thermal linkage.
• Completed vacuum flange connections at cryocooler and vacuum gauge on T.
  • See IMG_8743 for overview of current cryocooler connection.
• Installed Heater on workpiece holder using 2x #4-40 screws, with an indium gasket underneath. Need to check whether we adequately compressed the indium (needs a certain pressure to flow into surface microroughness), but we didn't have any flexibility in the position or bolting arrangement - something to consider for future sample holders.
• Connected RTDs at Inner Shield (cryo varnish), Outer Shield (cryo varnish), Heater (cryo varnish), and Workpiece (spring clamp). Heater RTD Kapton Tape separating soldered leads needed to be separated, as a short was found at those bare leads. Workpiece RTD connected directly to the workpiece holder since we want to witness the temperature of the sample as directly as possible, and the RTD mounted to the outside of the heater will be overly-sensitive to heat input, yielding a very different time constant from the workpiece (and an inaccurate witness to sample temperature).
  • See IMG_8745 for overview of internal configuration, including RTD positions and thermal linkage to baseplate.
• Outer and Inner radiation shields were aligned to the copper braid connection to avoid shorting, then to the optical beam path by eye.
• While making final tightening of workpiece holder, Stephen's allen key slipped, and the installed silicon cantilever was whacked and fractured. The workpiece holder will need to be registered, and the workpiece will need to be swapped out.

The following is the list of remaining actions before we have cooldown data:

1. Replace workpiece (may require removal of workpiece holder, may require removal and reconnection of RTDs
2. Check alignment of radiation shield apertures, confirming outer radiation shield is still standing on the 3x G10 spacers
3. Confirm conductivity of RTDs, both by eye and by temperature controller readout.
4. Add radiation shield lids, including bolts to inner radiation shield lid.
5. Bolt down top chamber lid, incremental torquing 1/4-turn at a time with metal-to-metal end result (to achieve full compression of o-ring).
   1. Would be good to wipe down outer surface of o-ring using a wiper and IPA, since there have been a lot of on/off moves since we last pumped down, and we could have picked up particulate introducing a leak path. Check by eye after wipe down.
6. Pump down system and confirm that we have no leaks (tightening new CF joints would be the first resolution, if there are any issues)
   1. Gauge cables to controller/readout are currently disconnected, need to reconnect.
   2. Can we collect and trend pumpdown data yet from the gauge controller? Might be worth setting this up, if the com cable is already in place as it appears to be.
7. Turn on cryocooler once vacuum pressure reaches tens of milliTorr or better (should be an hour or two).
   1. Need to start USB datalogging at temperature controller.
   2. RTD names might need updating for consistency with current mounting.
   3. Can we collect and trend pumpdown data yet from the temperature controller? Might be worth setting this up, if the com cable is already in place as it appears to be.

We are both working on adding all of our photos to the photo dump at the ligo.wbridge QIL Cryostat Photo Album. We will then collaborate to add some of the most interesting images to this log!

[Stephen, Radhika]

As of last Thursday (5/13), the new vacuum tubes had been selected and bolted in. We fixed the copper braid to the cryo-cooler: the braid was folded in half, with the loose ends bolted to the cryo-cooler and the folded end fed through the vacuum tubes into the chamber. The folded loop was bolted down to the baseplate. The copper braid was pulled tight and thus has no slack. Aluminum sheets were used to wrap frayed areas of the copper braid to prevent shorting to the tube walls, though this needs to be revisited. We also still need to address shorting to the inner/outer radiation shields.

I tried pumping down the JPL PD chamber to test the new PD at cryo temperatures. Unfortunately, the chamber can;t get past about 6E-3 Torr with the pump on. As soon as I turned off the pump the pressure rose to around 2 Torr over 20 minutes or so.

I extricated the chamber from the pedestals, flipped it and removed the bottom plate. I cleaned the O-ring with isopropanol and wiped down the mating surface on the chamber (also with iso). I replaced the plate and tightened the screws. Then I returned the chamber to the table and reconnected it to the vacuum system. I tried pumping down once again but I saw pretty much exactly the same situation as before (pressure bottoming out around 6E-3 Torr and then rising quickly again when the pump was turned off).

I guess it's possible that the O-ring is damaged - although I couldn't see anything obivous. We didn't mess around with the viewport (when we replaced the diode a few weeks ago) so I'm hoping there is no issue there.

It is important to characterize the noise levels of all instruments used in the current PD testing setup. We generally expect ~5uV/rHz of ADC input noise. Verifying/correcting this value will be key to ensuring that our overall gain is enough to amplify various signals above the ADC noise floor.

I terminated the input to ADC channel 31 with a 50-ohm BNC terminator. I used diaggui to generate the resulting amplitude spectra, with 0.03 BW (attached). To convert counts to volts, I took a range of 20V divided by 2^16 counts, resulting in a scaling of 3e-4 V/count. I plan to conduct another test to confirm this value (feeding a known voltage and comparing to the output). In the meanwhile, the resulting noise level consistent with our expectation of a few uV/rHz.

Note that the back panel connectors are Triax, not the usual Coax.

Going back to a 1D heat transfer model, and matching Stephen's numbers for the area and length of the thermal strap, I confirm that the conductive power of a single strap is indeed heavily constraining the cryocooler capacity. For my simulation the peak power for a 0.5m copper strap with area 6.71e-5 m^2 is 1.06 Watts with an average of a few hundred mW during the cooldown.

The main difference with respect to Stephen's numbers is that I account for temperature dependent conductivity and heat capacity, include a radiative sink (surrounding vacuum tube at room temp), and take the strap to be made of RRR 500 Cu.

Attached is the predicted temperature at the end of the strap as a function of time when the operating point of the cryocooler is set to 123 K. Note the cooldown delay caused by the single half-meter strap (with respect to the cryocooler cold head).

Looks very clear, thanks. I guess the next thing to do is

1. ask if this will work for all the various PDs we want to test,
2. is it good enough for all our requirements, and then we
3. draw a new diagram for the new setup, incorporating what to keep and what circuit to make ourselves

Attached:

- Updated schematic of the current PD testing setup, including noise levels for current electronics

- Table of desired measurements for new setup, with expected signal levels, accuracy, and readout values

StephenA

This log investigates cooling through our current planned copper braid connection (which is standing in for an intended rigid bar linkage that is WIP)

The question is, can we get [cooling power of cryocooler] out of our baseplate through this copper braid?

Copper Braid

Cooner Wire P/N NER 7710836 BOF (oxygen free copper)

• AWG Size 2/0
• Circular Mil Area 132300 (conversion: .104 in^2 = 6.71e-5 m^2) - note that a 1 cm x 1 cm bar would have an area of 1e-4 m^2
• No. of Wires 5292
• Wire AWG Size 36
• Construction 7x7x108/36
• Nominal Diameter .483"
• Pounds Per MFT 433.

ref. https://www.coonerwire.com/flexible-wire-rope/

Cryocooler

Sumitomo CH-104 (manual from Wiki) has 77K coldhead cooling capacity of 34 W, and from the quote, 50K cooling capacity of just under 40 W.

Adequate cooling power of this setup depends on the radiative heat load and conductive losses; for our purposes, we can imagine that tens of Watts will be needed, and circle back to more precise heat budgeting.

Conductive Heat Transfer

Q = A / L * (Uint_T2 - Uint_T1)

Uint_T = the integral of thermal conductivity between T and 4K, see below table [ETP OFE Copper, W/m]. Note these are values from literature not from our copper braid's spec sheet (no such properties available from vendor).

Table of Thermal Conductivity integral values, between T and 4K. Unit = W/m. Source: Ekin, Appendix 2.1

               20K = 14000, 40K = 40600, 50K  = 50800, 60K = 58700, 70K = 65100, 80K = 70700, 100K = 80200, 120K = 89100, 140K = 97600

A = 6.71e-5 m^2

L = 0.5 m (estimate)

T2 = 123 K (intended workpiece temperature)

T1 = ? (coldhead temperature, unknown, we will pick a value and calculate)

Q(T1_80K) = 6.71e-5 m^2 / 0.5 m * (89100 W/m - 70700 W/m) = 2.46 W

Q(T1_20K) = 6.71e-5 m^2 / 0.5 m * (89100 W/m - 14000 W/m) = 10.07 W

Conclusion

It appears that the copper braid's capacity for conductive heat transfer will constrain the tens of Watts of cryocooler capacity. This is even before we consider imperfections in the clamping interfaces and similar real losses.

Fixes for this constraint might involve adding parallel linkages (increasing area) or shortening the strap length.

It would be interesting to compare this to the anticipated capacity of the flexible strap in the original design - future work.
 

RadhikaB, StephenA

Two sessions this week were spent working toward simplification of the cryocooler connection.

We needed to order a couple of off the shelf vacuum fittings to complete the intended design - image attached.

Still WIP!

I purchased a set of telephoto and macro lenses for the lab. They're stored in the tool cabinet.

WIP log entry - working on getting all of our ideas down on the page, then will sort and elaborate.

We met to discuss a range of topics relating to the path ahead for the Cryo Vacuum Chamber. This reconsideration of the current state of things is necessary as the chamber needs to become the workhorse for PD characterization efforts soon, in addition to a range of other tests (large suspension tests will be conducted in a different chamber, yet to be designed)

1. Pumping station should be moved away from table, with long roughing lines perhaps coming down from above using some ceiling-mounted cable tray or similar.
2. Primary pumping line to chamber is large and overkill in terms of conductance. Can move to a longer, more flexible, smaller diameter connection (may need to adapt using CF zero-length flange).
3. Pumping of the external volume may be managed by valve arrangement and direct connection of both volumes to the turbo pump. Valve out the external volume once the pressure is low, and the pressure should hold well enough for conductive losses to be minimal.
4. Viewports seem suitable, no issues throughout. I learned about common coating behavior, namely that reflectance is generally at half the wavelength of transmission, so if I see a green reflection it suggests transmission at IR. Neat!
5. Cabling into chamber for temp sensors is pretty scary. Noticed the kink in the cable bundle caused by the flexible part of the cable extending longer than the grip of the connector's stiffening. Needs to be reassembled with the stiff cabling under the grip (could extend the grip, shorten the flexible leads, etc.) to avoid the kink.
6. External volume feels like a misdirected design.
   1. For general case, consider mounting the cryocooler directly to chamber. Avoid losses related to thermal linkages from cold head of cryocooler to baseplate (diagram will be supplied, Rana was especially concerned that the V clamping arrangement didn't have adequate contact area in the line contacts)
   2. For vibration-sensitive experiments, would be good to have a flexible bellows reducing vibrational energy through the vacuum skin, and flexible strap reducing vibrational energy to the baseplate.
   3.  For contamination-sensitive experiments, would be necessary to implement a feedthrough as currently, but seems overkill for current slate of experiments.
   4. The intention seems to have been to devise a scaleable solution that would work for Mariner, but we are currently very far from realizing that (cryocooler needs to be Stirling cycle for vibration, no validation yet of adequate thermal conductivity through the external volume to the baseplate, etc.)
7. Thermal straps with Mylar shielding is not the optimal implementation. Something like a rigid copper bar provides better conductivity, and can be shielded by G10 tubing with Aluminum metallization on the OD. If a flexible connection is required (for example, vibration isolation or positional uncertainty) a thermal strap may also be shielded in this sort of conduit.
8. Need to replace the V-groove copper connections with something with much more surface area. V-grooves are nearly 1D contact lines, so they are probably the mian cooling rate limiter at the moment. Need to get some new parts fabbed ASAP to continue working on this cryostat.
9. Vent valve should be a leak valve with a controlled, small conductance, perhaps backed by a filter. Want to allow slow, controlled venting.
10. Skyhook Crane should be on its cart wheels for easy relocation away from the experiments.
11. Skyhook should be replaced by a simple hoist mounted to ceiling of enclosure. Would require stiffening of some members of the enclosure's ceiling, but would permit easier access with fewer traffic jams.
12. Yellow solvent cabinet should be removed. Solvents should be stored under fume hood.
13. Would be great to get a stand (ie wire shelving, but heavy duty) which could hold the compressor, hold the pumping station, and provide a single location for any other items that need to be interfaced. All connections would be routed over the walkway via a run of cable rack.
14. Moving the chamber to the center of the table width would be helpful to opening up access to more ports. Currently located in a corner, such that only half of ports are accessible. This is an extra reason that the Sky Hook should be remounted to its wheeled base.
15. Should put all controllers on a rack, rather than consuming optical table space. All necessary serial comm cabling could then run to this singular location. We can use the rack next to the sink which has the NIM racks. The rack is completely unused right now. Need to get some rack parts to put some shelving in there.
16. Documentation of ongoing thoughts, design efforts, modifications, etc. can be contained at the wiki!
17. What is currently installed? Some insights from the wiki (ie gauges, pumps, viewports) should be elevated into a comprehensive diagram with a bill of materials or similar.
18. In the diagram need to note all instruments so that Radhika can include it in her work to interface with the DAQ. i.e. no more photos and screenshots to record data.
19. Where am I? A floorplan for this experiment (current and planned) would be worth some time, now that we are considering specific improvements.

Will sort the above into some sort of timeline (such as short term / long term).

Ruminations about the future chamber for suspension work:

1. Stirling cryocooler for vibration isolation
2. Straight-sided construction (i.e. rectangular prism) for more usable footprint inside
3. If vertical (i.e. lid) use counterbalance and hinge for easy opening without hoist or crane; might need side ports large enough for hand access, since the height will be prohibitive to reach all the way down to the baseplate.
4. Horizontal (i.e. door) might be preferred, especially with the volume in the form of a rectangular prism. This would allow access throughout the height of the chamber.
5. Usual vacuum vendors should be able to help bring the design from a sketch to a quote, so start those conversations.

Posting link to PD testing google doc here: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RrtX5nqNeEOazNvT2rPxHnSqumgvYfaBrYTMMGZ-ecc/edit

We put the preamp output directly into a multimeter and observed the same fluctuating behavior as the DAC channel was changed.

We're bypassing the relay to see if that makes any difference. The old relay wiring (to be bypassed) is shown in the attached diagram. That didn't do anything.

We're looking at filtering the DC output by 5kHz to see if there are any resonances at higher frequencies that might go away. Changing SR560 output for AC path to DC and setting gain to 1 on that unit. Also changing gain in FM31 filter bank from 1E-3 to 1. The results are shown in the attached time series. The channels FM30 and FM31 see the same thing. The only difference is that FM31 goes through an SR560 with a 0.03Hz pole (6dB).

Success by bypassing the DAC bias voltage. We switched to a 300mV bias voltage from a function generator. Doing that removed the causal PD voltage drift induced by changing the laser diode current set voltage (see the last time series). So the issue is some weird coupling into the DAC bias voltage.

[Aidan, Radhika, Nina]

We noticed that the DC channel readout (FM30) of the JPL A1 photodiode is drifting around. What we observe with no light on the photodiode, is the DC output drifiting around. It gets particularly bad when we apply voltage to other DAC channels.

For example, the attached plot shows the DC voltage from the photodiode as I change the set voltage to the laser diode driver. To be absolutely clear, the laser driver itself was completely powered off. I'm just varying the voltage going into the set point BNC connector on the back of it.

For reference, the set up is:

DAC (300mV bias) > relay > PD > relay  > FEMTO preamp (1000x gain) > ADC channel FM30

2021.04.14 StephenA

QIL Cryo vacuum chamber cooldown was not as successful under the new configuration (radiation shielded by cylindrical outer + inner shields, cold finger thermally strapped to baseplate).

--> Karthik's Si cantilever workpiece was stable at 240 K.

--> Cold Finger was stable at 200 K - there is significant thermal loss between the cold finger and the workpiece.

--> Inner shield was stable at 250 K - seems to be somewhat decoupled from the baseplate; not very satisfied with the current state of the shielding.

Will need to re-examine some of the connections, which were not optimal (especially the improvised dog clamped strap-baseplate interface). Fabricating an adapter piece for the thermal strap which will be bolted 4x on a 2" x 2" grid. Might also look into a new thermal strap which could interface with baseplate directly.

Also will need to consider options to decouple outer shield from inner, and double check that shield orientation has no other solution (hoping there's an answer to the question, why would outer shield be coupled to baseplate?)

Data - cooldown 20210408 (CSV = raw, XLSX = Stephen's plots) in Box Folder [Voyager\MarinerBox\CryoEngineering\CSVlogs]

Description - 6 day cooldown. Layout described in QIL/2552. The radiation shields were installed and thermal strap was connected to baseplate. The cryocooler was turned on/off at the start/end of the data collection, and the in-vac heater was not powered on at all.

Images -

1. IMG_8570 = starting conditions;
2. IMG_8585 = final conditions after 144 hours;

Plots -

1. cooldown_20210408_first_si_workpiece_with_shields_and_straps

I posted a video tutorial of the diode replacement.

https://dcc.ligo.org/G2100807

To aid in taking photos of these diodes, I put a USB microscope on Anchal's desk - you can grab it from there. I use it with mac Photo Booth, but it should be easy to use with any camera application.

Also, I recommend buying a macro lens(es) for cell phones from Amazon or B&H.  Label them with the QIL lab sticker so they don't disappear.

2021.04.08, StephenA

Karthik had completed in-chamber alignment efforts during a prior visit. In air alignment also completed following viewport move.

0) Removed lid for access to chamber.

--> posted demo video to ligo.wbridge QIL Cryostat HowTo Playlist.

1) Mounted RTDs to final positions - locations are Heater (cryo varnish+cigarette paper, pictured in IMG_8558 curing under weight of upsidedown bolt), Inner Shield (cryo varnish+cigarette paper, pictured in IMG_8559), Cold Finger (spring clamp), and Workpiece (spring clamp).

--> Final chamber layout may be viewed in IMG_8562

--> Note that Karthik's Si cantilever, mounted vertically in the right of the image, is NOT bolted down to the baseplate (just located on baseplate by dog clamps, held down via gravity). This will need to be investigated to enable workpiece cooling.

2) Installed radiation shield lids - no bolts to expedite the process and to see if there is any bulk motion during pumpdown and thermal cycling.

--> note that the lid for the outer radiation shield seems to interface with the current shield orientation perfectly; if there was a mismatch, it would point toward the inverted orientation being intended, but this seemed pretty definitive.

3) Installed the cryostat lid - final positioning and alignment made easier by teflon rails!

--> posted demo video to ligo.wbridge QIL Cryostat HowTo Playlist.

4) Pumped down - single button press to turn on pumping station.

--> note that it took about 1 hour for both gauges to reach a few mTorr.

5) Confirmed function of heater - set PID setpoint to 350 K and enabled outputs, observed temperature rise in heater RTD.

--> note that PID autotuning should be done at steady state with workpiece RTD, before enabling outputs again!

6) Turned on cryocooler - flip power lever and turn on green system switch.

--> start time was 10 am.

7) Started temperature datalogging to USB - press dull red indicator dot on upper right corner of CTC-100 once, and note that indicator is now bright red.

8) Remaining photos posted to the ligo.wbridge QIL Cryostat Photo Album

I'm attaching my rough first draft of the QIL photodiode testing schematic. Please provide comments for fixes/improvement!

04/01/21

Aidan and I removed the old PD from the cryo chamber in order to start testing C3 (plan for tomorrow, 04/02).

Steps:

- Brought chamber up to room pressure, disconnected readout wires and vacuum pump.

- Picked up chamber and placed it upside down on makeshift support stand (see pics).

- Unscrewed mounting plate and 2 inner insulation plates to reveal mounted PD.

- Had trouble unscrewing PD mount, since the screws were very close to the PD and we had to be careful not to slip and cause damage. Started with 2 side screws, then bottom (hardest), then top.

- Successfully removed PD and put away. Placed chamber components back in place without bolting in.

- Plan is to mount PD C3 in chamber tomorrow and begin testing.

2021.03.17, StephenA

1. Radiation Shields located (in TCS lab), unwrapped, fitted up.

Location in TCS Lab - IMG_8351

Removed lid and placed adjacent to chamber (cleared a little space, used 3 plastic flange covers to make nonmarring surface safe for lid and o-ring - IMG_8353

Fit up as installed - IMG_8354

Comments on the fit up - I looked at all of the apparent sources for insights into Rahul's original design intent - QIL elog 2276, DCC T1800308-v1, wiki for Cryo Vacuum Chamber. It appears that Rahul never decoupled the upper outer radiation shield from the cold plate, which seems like a strange omission. Chris and Raymond also appear to have been wrapping their heads around the intended layout, they came up with the fit up in QIL elog 2429 and sketch from QIL elog 2430. I will revisit their sketch at a future opportunity, but I went with something closer to 2429 as I was concerned about the height misalignments they described. Note that the height misalignment appears in Rahul's T1800308 CAD (see T1800308-v1 screenshot) so who knows what's "correct". I'll work on finalizing D2100310 CAD with radiation shield to capture the true current dimensions and fit up, to hopefully avoid such issues in the future.

2. Radiation Shields installed in Cryostat. Sequence was important here, as were a couple of improvised solutions to shortcomings of the existing parts.

Dog Clamps placed on bottom plate (to stand off bottom radiation shield bottom lid; not pictured, I think I placed some alumina washers on the dog clamps as well, not sure though anymore!). Also pictured are the usual PEEK legs for cold plate - IMG_8355

Bottom radiation shield bottom lid placed on dog clamps spacer, and bottom radiation shield cylinder placed on bottom lid - IMG_8356. Seems likely that the bottom radiation shield would be better configured upside-down.

Bolted cold plate down onto legs, with cold plate decoupled from bottom radiation shield - IMG_8357

Outer radiation shield installed and inner radiation shield installed (both needed to be tipped into place gingerly, but both cleared the cold finger cylinder with the flange removed. The heater also passed through the apertures successfully - IMG_8358

2x Alumina washers placed under outer radiation shield, inner radiation shield on cold plate - IMG_8374

Cold Flange reinstalled, though one of the brass SHCS was sheared - this was due to over torque, with 20 in*lb applied by mistake. Correct torque is 10 in*lb. The remaining 3 bolts were tightened to 10 in*lb. - IMG_8360

Top view of radiation shield apertures and cold plate grid - IMG_8375

Thermal strap interface to cold plate - dog clamps required due to strange spacing of clearance holes. - IMG_8376

04/01/21

Aidan and I removed the old PD from the cryo chamber in order to start testing C3 (plan for tomorrow, 04/02).

Steps:

- Brought chamber up to room pressure, disconnected readout wires and vacuum pump.

- Picked up chamber and placed it upside down on makeshift support stand (see pics).

- Unscrewed outer and inner insulation plates.

2021.03.30, StephenA

1. Viewport swap to nozzle that is not occluded by cryo shield = complete. All bolts on both Active Ion Gauge and Viewport have been torqued gradually (about a half turn at a time, around the clock dial) until the conflat seal was metal-to-metal. Periscope on damped optical rod was rotated to make room for replacement.

Before viewport swap - IMG_8487

After viewport swap - IMG_8502

2. Cryo RTD repair = complete. Two RTDs had been damaged during prior mounting efforts by me. I was able to repair the clamped RTD at the single damaged solder joint. I was able to repair the former Al-Block RTD by replacing the RTD element, and making a new direct attachment (not preloaded, not varnished to the aluminum block anymore)

Materials and set-up for solder repair - IMG_8491

Repaired Clamp-2 RTD - IMG_8494

Damaged Al-Block RTD - IMG_8492 (note short length between kapton strain relief and aluminum block was not ideal, one lead had already fractured and the second soon followed at the slightest touch)

Repaired, remounted Al-Block RTD - IMG_8495 (heater sandwiched underneath threaded adapter, clamp threaded into adapter, sandwiching RTD at top plane)

Remounted Clamp-2 RTD - IMG_8496 (RTD clamped at cold flange, strap is mounted)

Remaining Clamp-1 and Varnish RTDs are free - IMG_8497

Current readouts of CTC-100 controller, with repaired RTDs now behaving (note need to rename the Al-Block RTD) - IMG_8501

3. Next steps:

 - Karthik to install clamps, align in-air relay, and confirm positition of radiation shield aperture.

 - Remaining free RTDs to be mounted; current RTDs are mounted at Heater and Cold Flange, would be good to mount RTD at Work Piece/Clamp and at Outer Radiation Shield.

 - Radiation shield lids to be installed (might be easiest to install Outer Radiation Shield RTD after installing lid)

 - Mount lid, install bolts, pump down, turn on cryo cooler, the usual!

[Aidan, Jon, Chris W, Ian]

Summary: We rebuilt the Cymacs C4TST today to get FM31_OUT into frames

Main points: 

• Had to mount fb4 epics/simLink directory with CDS_PARTS onto QIL-WS2 (only machine with Simulink)
  • Had to make this directory viewable on other machines by editing the /etc/exports file on FB4
  • Had to update the /etc/fstab file on QIL-WS2 to give it the location of the new directory
  • Had to manually mount the directoy on QIL-WS2 to avoid rebooting machine to achieve this (reboot will automatically mount the drive)
• C4TST model would not compile on FB4. Issue was two-fold:
  • Compilation was done in wrong build directory
  • Compilation was done using sudo
• To fix this, we had to clean up the compilation files from the failed sudo efforts
  • sudo make clean-c4tst was run (didn't completely solve problem)
  • Removed /usr/share/advligorts/src/src/include/c4tst* using sudo
• Once the old compiles were cleaned up, we could compile models (not as sudo) in /opt/rtcds/rtbuild/
• Ran the following commands to manually restart the models (ignore the line numbers)

 1982  sudo /sbin/rmmod c4tst c4iop 
 1983  cd /opt/rtcds/caltech/c4/target/c4iop/scripts/
 1984  ./startupC4rt 
 1985  cd ../../c4tst/scripts/
 1986  ./startupC4rt
 1987  systemctl start rts-awgtpman@c4iop.service
 1988  cd .././../
 1989  ls
 1990  cd gds
 1991  ls
 1992  cd awgtpman_startup/
 1993  ls
 1994  ./awgtpman_c4iop.cmd 
 1995  ./awgtpman_c4tst.cmd 
 1996  systemctl restart daqd@standiop.service
 1997  systemctl
 1998  systemctl status daqd@standiop.service
 1999  systemctl stop daqd@standiop.service
 2000  sudo systemctl restart daqd@standiop.service

Added Simulink > Model-Wide Utilities > Model Info block to c4tst.mdl. Text inside that block is:

#DAQ Channels

FM31_OUT 16384

--

Now following https://nodus.ligo.caltech.edu:8081/QIL/2336

And it failed. See attached screenshot. Then I copied c4tst.mdl to the simLink directory. Compile still failed.

Noticed that the DAC channels were not producing a corresponding output in the real world (I changed the Laser Current FM12 value and got not corresponding change on the laser diode driver display).

Sent the following to Chris: "Can you log into the QIL FB4 workstation to see if there is an issue with the DAC? I restarted the C4TST model last week and I don’t seem to have working DAC outputs anymore. The ADC channels still work and the model appears to be running. It just seems that I can’t output any voltages."

After observing that the "DK" (DACKILL) bit in the state word on the IOP status screen was red, the resolution to this was to restart the IOP and TST models.

Adding fb4:/usr/share/advligorts to QIL-WS2 to /etc/fstab file

Should help access to CDS_PARTS model file in Simulink on QIL-WS2

Except access is denied by FB4

MATLAB license had expired on QIL-WS2 so I had to activate it again.

entered just before (Wed Mar 17 16:06:37 2021) to borrow a mini-circuits filter (SLP-100)

I added a 7 minute video to the DCC that shows how to operate the HiCube 80 Eco pumping station.

LIGO-G2100609

Also added a "Tutorial video" category to the elog.

I pumped the chamber down and added LN2 today. The pressure was slowly rising - it was about 20m Torr in the chamber when I added the LN2. Per Raymond's instructions, I added about a third of a container of LN2. This got the temperature down to about 89K (when I had 20W running in the heater). It stayed there for about 25-30 minutes.

I turned off the heater and left the LN2 to boil off. You could see the cloud coming out of the top (the plume height would increase proportionally to the heat in the heater).

Eventually the LN2 evaporated and the shield temperature started to increase back to room temperature. As of this post it is 282K (which took about 5 hours).

The PD thermistor is not currently registering. However, the temperature of the PD can be inferred from the shield temperature (see aLOG 2517).

The rate of increase in temperature was much faster than the previous test - see second time series. I wonder if the thermal mass of the shields in the Feb 2020 test was cooled down a lot more due to 5 hours at 80K in that test - thus reducing the overall ambient load on the inner shield ...

I pumped the small vacuum volume down but the pressure started rising as soon as I turned off the vacuum pump. Closing the main valve to the pump and the valve to the chamber did little to change the leak rate. So the main leak seems to be from the volume around the pressure gauge - best guess, the section and O-ring that I connected to the chamber yesterday.

Vacuum pressure was recorded from vacuum gauge to text file in Python (using pyserial). Haven't got this into EPICS just yet. 

Link to ligo.wbridge QIL Cryostat HowTo Playlist Cryostat on youtube - not super user-friendly as of yet, but populated with a couple of videos so far.

Link to ligo.wbridge QIL Cryostat Photo Album on google photos - not well curated, currently just a dump.

• I updated the SR560 settings for the AC Photodiode readout going into the ADC. They're now: AC coupled input, 2000x gain, low noise, 10kHz pole
• Updated the "undoSR560" filterbank for the FM31 input channel to undo the SR560 settings (zpk([0.15], [0], 7.5E-5)
• Unhooked oscilloscope from AC channel and switched SR560 to battery mode - no change in recorded spectra. I think I need to run the FEMTO preamp from a battery pack
• Hooked up the pumping station to the chamber and went through the pumping cycle described below. No major issues.
• Turned on the MKS vacuum gauge and hooked it into the serial port of QIL-WS1 to readback the vacuum pressure onto the DAQ. I want to transfer this across to QIl-NFS but there are no serial ports on that machine - will have to get a USB-Serial converter.

I recorded a 15 minute overview that describes the JPL PD set up and how to operate it. I'm in the process of embellishing the operation procedure (previous version can be found here: eLOG 2476).

I measured the power incident on the cryo chamber viewport and the reference PD reading to calibrate the incident power. Data is attached. Power meter head = S148C.

I ran the bright PD test on the photodiode currenlty in the vacuum chamber. The test was run at air and room temperature. I aligned the 2um laser onto the PD using the piezo mirror and the readout from the preamp. I then switched to the Keithley and ran the bright scan with the "runsweep.py" script. I actually ran the scan at multiple laser diode current settings by varying the control voltage into the diode driver. The change in response wrt control voltage looks linear but I need to run an analysis on it.

The data is stored in /home/controls/JPL_PD/data/20210303_bright_scans

is the x-axis in units of seconds? I think if we are clever, we should be able to look at a couple of the thermal time constants and figure out where the heat leaks are.

[updated with reference to data set, cleaner plot, images of chamber configuration]

StephenA, 2021.02.05

Data - cooldown 20210205 (CSV = raw, XLSX = Stephen's plots) in Box Folder [Voyager\MarinerBox\CryoEngineering\CSVlogs]

Description - 5.5 hour cooldown with data, which was then allowed to continue for a total of 96 hours (but data collection failed for the long stretch, except for a snapshot of the final state). The cold flange was below 100 K after 6 hours, and leveled off at about 80 K. The vacuum pressure was steady at 3 microTorr throughout, via a roughing line connecting the external and internal volumes (mitigated losses in external connection volume, with no areas dramatically cold to touch). The cold flange was radiating to room temperature surroundings, as the radiation shields were not installed. The cryocooler was turned on/off at the start/end of the data collection, and the in-vac heater was not powered on at all.

Images -

1. IMG_8047 = starting conditions;
2. IMG_8119 = intermediate conditions after 5.7 hours;
3. IMG_8148 = final conditions after 96 hours;
4. IMG_8232 markup = view of RTD locations on cold flange, with annotations;
5. IMG_8225 = top view of cold flange and chamber configuration without radiation shields.

Plots -

1. cooldown_20210205_uhv_coupled_cold_flange_first_segment - shows first 5.5 hours only;
2. cooldown_20210205_uhv_coupled_cold_flange_all_time - shows all 96 hours, with data points extracted from images.

StephenA, RaymondR remotely assisting (off payroll haha)

It seems that we won't likely receive the intended hand-off resources (especially of note is that Raymond can't seem to find the videos he made, wherein he guides through operations of the vacuum system and cryocooler). Raymond has been kind enough to support via Zoom as needed so that things can progress with some sort of guidance.

I'll stay on top of the lessons learned and dump these, along with photos and other resources in the log. I'll also make weekly visits with the intent of making continued progress.

1) What is the current state of the QIL Chamber?

- Raymond left the vacuum line shorting the "external volume" with the cross, cryocooler, etc. directly to the "main volume" because the losses between the "external volume" and the feedthrough entering the chamber were too large. The system was down in the e-5 torr range. Ref IMG_8019, with flex hose connecting bottom of 4-way cross to side of chamber.

- To implement this vacuum arrangement, there was a key component put aside on the table - IMG_8024 is a T which connects the roughing line to both the external volume and the main volume, using the flex line from IMG_8019 and the components pictured in IMG_8020.

- The copper feedthrough has all clamps attached, such that temperature measurements are being made on the adapter copper rod, which has a bolt pattern for thermal straps. Sensor names reflect current locations.

- We inspected everything (cryocooler connections, vacuum gauges, temperature logging), and pronounced it "ready to go" at the end of my work day.

2) What did I learn today?

- Cryocooler has only one setting, and temperature control must be engineered at the output using thermal contact, emissivity, etc.

- Formatting of USB is the main error that can befall the CTC100 datalogger. If the red dot in the upper right corner of the screen does not light up bright when it is tapped (this starts datalogging), then there is something wrong. Easy enough to test by removing the USB when the red dot is dim (datalogging paused) and checking whether there are log contents.

- Raymond's focus with the QIL chamber had been on answering the question, "can we cool down the cryocooler's connection (copper linkage which passes into the chamber) adequately?" He had never successfully obtained a cooldown that was below 150 K, and the primary limitation appeared to be related to high pressures in the "external volume".

3) What are we up to next?

- The next time I come in, I will be turning on the cryocooler and datalogging first thing, and I will hopefully have cooldown trends to share in the log.

- If those trends are > 150 K, I was advised that the next thing to do would be to bring the "external volume" out of the equation, and directly attach the cryocooler to the copper feedthrough linkage. This would be one way to demonstrate the least-lossy, best case scenario.

- If < 150 K, I am told that Karthik may be ready to move in for some measurements. If not, I would be interested in dropping in the suspended, shielded Silicon dummy (currently standing by) and seeing if we can measure a successful (< 150 K) cooldown on the Si mass.

4) Can we increase the height of the chamber?

I've shared lots of images related to the question of extending the height of the chamber. Here are my thoughts:

- Raw measurements - Ceiling = 0", Crane ~ -12",  Crane hook ~ -16", Chamber Lid ~ -26", Chamber Base ~ -40", Table ~ -43".

--> Not much space above the surface of lid, currently about 10" of range for a possible extension.

--> Actual useable range is less, due to real world limitations such as the height of lifting straps, interference with the angled crane arm, etc. 

- It would require a clever solution to increase the crane height (spacer at base? extended height model?) or lower the lid height wrt the crane (position on lower table? lower the table on its leveling feet?) to buy a few more inches.

- Current allowed object height ~8" (could be extended to about 10" with modified PEEK spacers at base); would we benefit greatly from having a ~16" allowed object height? Or do we need to get more height out of this update?

- I need to follow up with my request for quote of an extension of ~10" height.

Mid afternoon I moved some equipment to QIL for making Q measurements of cantilevers, which Karthik is planning to do in the IR labs cryostat. See cryo elog for more information, photos attached to show location of equipment in QIL.

This morning I rolled the AG4395A from Adaptive Optics lab (labeled QIL, IP = 10.0.1.64) for use in Crackle. Will return after end using.

doesn't seem so, but they sell this one:

http://www.nfcorp.co.jp/english/pro/mi/loc/m_lp/p_lp/lp_6016_01/index.html

which has a USB interface and pretty good voltage noise spectrum

Is the reverse bias programmable? FEMTO has a bias trimmer on it. It's useful in the usual application, but for automation, the configuration of the input becomes cumbersome.