These days, Ronic, Aurélien, Fatematuj and I have been doing some tests on polarization issue, trying to see if it is possible to obtain higher gain under other polarization conditions.

• We installed an additional half-wave plate + PBS + PD at the transmission. By rotating the waveplate of the injection laser, we can compare the resonance signals of single and full polarization. Figures 1 and 2 demonstrate this comparison. The yellow curve is full polarization and the green one is single polarization. The intensity ratio of the different polarizations is unstable in the open-loop state.
• Based on PZT scan frequency = 3.1 Hz, amplitude = 10 V, sensitivity = 3.7 Hz/V, time difference between two polarization peaks = 100 us, we can calculate △Frep = 10mHz and △v = 42kHz, which means the frequency variation between two polarizations. We see two polarizations only at the main resonance.
• By the way, we found two spots behind the M3 window (see Figure 3) and the power of both is related to the intra-cavity power. We moved the position of D-shaped mirror and the second spot became weaker and larger like mirror's edge. Maybe the D-shaped mirror is causing a part of laser to be reflected through the window, but it's unclear exactly how the optical path works.

Next steps:

• We will lock the cavity in different polarization and see if there is higher gain.
• We will move D-shaped to the maximum and see if the second spot disappears.
• We will check the coupling value and try to optimize the telescope using adjustable stages.