CFBG removed from ThomX CELIA amplifier, posted by Loïc Amoudry at Optical room about lasers and optics
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The CFBG has been removed successfully and the amplifier is closed now.
The soldering machine had a calibration trouble and was sent to the company for review during holidays.
The output power has been checked and is the same as before (tested until 30W ouput power). |
Glow discharge cleaner on SBOX mirrors, posted by Loïc Amoudry at Optical room about lasers and optics 
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The glow discharge cleaner has been tested on the SBOX mirrors.
I've put them 1 by 1. Each run was 15min long at 15mA. The mirrors HR face was always away from the electrode and ~35° angle
with the support. These values have been choosen thanks to the reference: |
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SBOX mirrors cleaned, posted by Loïc Amoudry at Optical room about lasers and optics
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Today, SBOX mirrors have been cleaned with spin coater on HR face and isoprop on back face. They show similar spots as before.
They also have been installed in the SBOX. The M1 mount has been displaced so the beam doesn't go in its center (spot). |
SBOX mirrors cleaned, posted by Loïc Amoudry at Optical room about lasers and optics
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Yesterday, after installation and alignment of mirrors and cavity, the Finesse has been measured with cavity at air pressure, with Koheras and modulation
technique.
the measurement has been done 7 times with quite different fits for the Finesse : 21.5k, 21.5k, 23.7k, 21.3k, 22.3k, 22k, 21.5k |
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SBOX mirrors cleaned, posted by Loïc Amoudry at Optical room about lasers and optics
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Today we put the cavity to vacuum (~ 0.1 mBar) and we measured again the Finesse with Koheras and modulation technique.
the measurement has been done 3 times with Finesse of 23.2k, 23.8k, 23k
Loïc |
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Power up to 48kW crater effect again, posted by Loïc Amoudry at Optical room about lasers and optics
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As we said, after glow discharge and spin coater we recovered a low power finesse ~23000 (aligning away from the M1 crater).
Today, we have made some power up to 48kW (3A on 3rd stage). At this power, there was no important effect on the transmission which can be compared
with the coupling (see image "3A_136mWtrans"). We waited ~20min without aligning and the power dropped slowly (misalignment) to 39kW. |
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Mirror's cleaning and microscope imaging, posted by Loïc Amoudry at Optical room about lasers and optics 14x
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On 10th of december 2020 we cleaned the SBOX mirrors and took microscope images (the name of the images indicates what they are).
There are 7 mirror, the initial M1 (spot in the center), M2 (spot on the edge), M3 and M4 which made the 200-400kW and the M2, M3 and M4 SPARE.
The difference we make between M3 and M4 SPARE is the number on the box (11 or 13). |
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amplifier, posted by Huan Wang at Optical room about lasers and optics
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Onefive output power is 24mW now, and 2.41mW(after EOM) injected into fiber,
a injection power monitor added, 99% (2.06mW) injected into amplifier, 1% (16.1uW) monitored with photodiode DET36A/M, which
gives ~500mV DC signal on oscilloscope with 1Mohm impedanc; |
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amplifier, posted by Huan Wang at Optical room about lasers and optics
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I just had a phone call with Jérome and he told me 2 things :
* Be carefull ! the MightyLaser amplifier is not designed to work with 33MHz laser : the streching level is not sufficient !
One could worsen the phase noise by self-modulation due to peak power or even distroy the amplifier ! |
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chiller for CELIA amplifier, posted by Aurélien Martens at Optical room about utilities
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The chiller of CELIA amplifier has been moved from the corridor to the changing room in front of PLIC.
It was not functionning well (quick drop of flow below 0.9l/min). After several cleanings of the filter, shorting the water circuit a stable
2.1l/min flow was obtained. Then the water circuit was elongated to go close to the amplifier but not into it. Allowing to get about 1.3l/min stable. Now |
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chiller for CELIA amplifier, posted by Aurélien Martens at Optical room about utilities
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today, temperature of the chiller has been set to 23°C.
measured temperature in the chiller reaches 23°C after approximatively 10 minutes
Aurélien |
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Menhir 160MHz laser, posted by Alice Renaux at Optical room about lasers and optics
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The Menhir 160MHz has been put back in place on the CELIA amplifier setup. Its output power is measured to be 150-160mW with an attenuator as expected.
Its spectrum is available in "spectre_avant_cvbg.xlsx" and "spectre_avant_cvbg.png".
The pulses are stretched by means of a CVBG. Their spectrum is available in "spectre_apres_cvbg.xlsx" and "spectre_apres_cvbg.png". |
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Menhir 216MHz laser, posted by Alice Renaux at Optical room about lasers and optics
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The Menhir 216MHz laser has been put back in place on the cavity table. Its output power is measured to be 160mW with an attenuator. Its spectrum is
available in "spectre.xlsx" and "spectre.png". The main wavelength is a bit shorter (1028.75nm) and the spectrum a bit narrower (4.73nm)
than expected. |
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2-mirror cavity alignment, posted by Alice Renaux at Optical room about mechanics | lasers and optics
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At the beginning of the week, I installed a half-wave plate, a beamsplitter cube and a quarter-wave plate, as well as the end-of-cavity mirror, which
I unsuccessfully tried to align.
I removed the end-of-cavity mirror and started the laser injection over again with the two motorized mirrors placed in front of the vacuum chamber |
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2-mirror cavity alignment, posted by Alice Renaux at Optical room about lasers and optics
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Yesterday and today, I replaced the OEWaves CW laser with the NKT CW laser. Its screen does not display anything, so it has to be operated through the
GraphiK software.
I then re-aligned the cavity with a new adjustment adaptation tool between the mirror mounts and the irises. |
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2-mirror cavity alignment, posted by Alice Renaux at Optical room about lasers and optics
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The NKT laser PZT sensitivity is ~0.09pm/V of wavelength variation, which is equivalent to ~ 25MHz/V
So, the full range of the scan is roughly 250MHz (more than a FSR) for 10V.
It seems impossible to get such large resonances unless the Finesse is very low => let's try to change M1 by a spare GammaFactory plan |
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2-mirror cavity full setup, posted by Alice Renaux at Optical room about lasers and optics
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Today with Ronic, we changed the FP cavity's mirrors to Layertek (Gamma Factory) mirrors :
- M1 : n°161186 --> fused silica, unknown absorption, unknown diffusion, T1=2500ppm transmission planar mirror ;
- M2 : n°161182 --> fused silica, unknown absorption, unknown diffusion, T2=10ppm transmission, 5m ROC mirror. |
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Damaged mirrors test, posted by Alice Renaux at Optical room about lasers and optics
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Today with Dorian we tested three mirrors with which we previously haven't been able to obtain any resonance or optical beating :
- C16111/11 : The mirror looks normal under a microscope, apart from a few inclusions and maybe a small scratch towards the edge. We tested it
with a 161186 M1 mirror and we weren't able to obtain any optical beating on the cavity's mirrors or resonance. |
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2-mirror cavity locking, posted by Alice Renaux at Optical room about lasers and optics
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In June, we encountered some problems regarding the transmission and error signals (see images here),
looking as if the laser was switched off before the cavity was filled.
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Successful lock (finally !), posted by Alice Renaux at Optical room about lasers and optics
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Today, with Ronic, we managed to get a successful lock with the NKT laser by setting up a new PDH box from scratch (photodiode + amplifer + mixer).
Me measured the injected power (5.4mW) and the transmitted power (33µW) after a wedge (92% transmission) and a 7ppm transmission mirror,
so the intracavity power was 5.1W. We have a 950 enhancement factor for a 3100 finesse cavity, so a nominal enhancement factor of 2500. The lock was very |