mingyuan, tara

            We setup the Michelson interferometer with two identical x and y arms. We drove both mirrors at 2 Hz and observed signal at 10 Hz using a lockin amplifier. We saw no significant difference whether the mirror were dirven or not.

           (The pzt for the second mirror is fixed. The wire is soldered back to its electrode.)

             We setup the Michelson interferometer, now with similar setups on two arms. The end mirrors on both arms are attached on metal shims. The shims touch the PZTs which are driven by 2Hz, 6Vpkpk sinusoidal signal with 7 V offset.

             We use a voltage divider(we planned to make one, but we found a nice one in EE lab lying on the floor, so we borrowed it) to adjust the voltage on one of the PZTs to make sure that both mirrors are driven by the same distance. We adjusted the divider to minimize the signal at 2Hz.

              fig 1: With a voltage divider, we can adjust the voltage on the PZT so that both mirrors are pushed by the same distance and the 2Hz common mode is minimized. On the plot, Y axis shows the signal output from the lock in amplifier at 2Hz. The higher value means the stronger signal at 2Hz. X axis is time scale. The setup was 5mV sensitivity range, filter in 300 ms, phase -152.3 degree.

 The signal output from the lock in amp has not been calibrated to length yet. We just want to see the qualitative result.

                 Once we made sure that we minimized the common mode, we tried to measure the possible up converted noise at 10Hz. (We used the internal oscillator in the lockin amplifier for reference signal at 10 Hz.)

               First, we did not drive the mirror, so that we could see the signal at 10 Hz due to background. Then, we drove the mirror at 2 Hz, and observed any possible up-converted noise at 10Hz

              There is nothing conclusive yet. The 2Hz signal that drives the PZTs are plotted here for comparison. From a quick glance, there is no obvious correlation between the noise and the driving signal.

fig2:  Signal from the lock in amp at 10Hz. Setup: sensitivity at 500 uV, in filter 300 ms.

Why are we doing this:

We want to measure any possible up-converted noise when the material under stress is driven at low frequency. For example, the system is driven at 2Hz, there might be broadband noise occurs due to the motion. If there is, we can try driving the system with different amplitude to see if the noise changes or not.