Today, I installed a power meter at the transmission point of the 1st spherical mirror , transmission 3 ppm (direct from cavity window beam profiler, no filter)

We locked the cavity at 2 different resonances of the fundamental mode, the lock in both cases was stable for a round 1 minute.

at different transmitted power of 33.85 uW ( 11 W average inside cavity) and then locked again at 82.65 uW (27.5 W average inside cavity) transmitted power 

Note : the coupling is almost zero for both of the resonances locked !!!!

Oscillator : 33.33 MHz ( 33.356 MHz , frequency read on LAL software)

power injected into amplifier (after injecting into fiber and an EOM) : 3.886 mW (on LAL software)

Amplifier power : 0% (injected power into cavity ~ 300 mW)

Both images of oscilloscope have same voltage scales, only difference timescale and the color code is : 

yellow : transmission

blue    : reflection

green : piezo voltage

red     : error signal

Today with Ronic,

starting with major events that happened (Water circulation + ThomX valves )  

• Early in the morning a company worked on the water network, it seemed it was not restarted properly so there was no water circulation in the main ThomX pipes.
  • There was an error on the ThomX amplifier chiller , which was noticed at the end of the morning work , where we couldn't find the cavity resonance , could be due to the temperature increase of the amplifer.
  • Solved :  the issue was solved by restarting the water network and the amplifier chiller was restarted an no error found and temp. Stabilized around 25°
• Around 12h15 ThomX there was a power cut off for less than a second (micro cutt), which cased all the valves to close, the valve air compressor did not restart after the power cut off, we restarted it with Daniele in the evening with the help of Marie and the valves open around 5-6 bar , you will see then all the controllers green and the valves will open.

Results of the day :

• All the power supplies and function generators are under the table, nothing on the table (reduced noise on the signal)
• EOM of Oscillator Off (for now, might turn on if needed)
• Amplifier on 0% , output ~ 300 mW
• Locked on the first resonance of the cavity,  lase lock parameters to be optimized better
• Transmitted power increased to ~ 267.2 uW
• Average power inside cavity = 89. 06 W , peak power = 0.2 kW (pulse width = 12.6 ps , frep = 33.36 MHz )
• current effective cavity gain > 300 

Oscilloscope :

•  error signal, not shown as it was too noisy to have in the image
• blue : reflection (low bypass filter ), yellow : transmission (resistance of 100 k ohm added), green : piezo signal
• 1st image : showing lock and scan regions.
• 2nd image: time zoom on the locked signal 

oscillators controller / smartAct:

• Frequency and CEP control , the parameters in the photo attached are the best for the moment to see the smooth change of the resonance peaks when operating the motors, and we can stay FSR range and compensate the variation easily. 
• even though we stayed at closed loop (for easier adjustment), we still managed to lock , will try to switch off later to see if reduces a lot of noise. 

In the morning, we locked on the first resonance. With an increase on the amplifier power @ 20-25% and 30%, which reduced the noise

we manage to get a coupling when improving the CEP up to 55 - 60 % coupling : put there is still a drift on the CEP

The controller for the oscillator frep and CEP produces a lot of noise, even if it is disconnected. we need to switch it off to remove its effect (Kevin will order a new one)

The image attached is of the oscilloscope lock on the first resonance @30% amplifier power ~ 10 W injected into cavity,

transmitted power ~ 36 mW (cavity average power 12 kW)

cavity effective gain > 1200

in the afternoon, we installed and aligned a gentec power meter we can monitor from the computer. (will need to buy a permeant one for ThomX)  

there was an issue with the laselock USB connection, yet to be solved.

and the control of the computer.

The computer is possible to connect from the control room,

we are able to run remotely the amplifier, cavity motors, oscillator motors, lase lock (note: there is an issue with the keyboard, we are not able to use it with remote access!!!!!!!!)

Note on Amplifier: On Friday, Daniele and Ronic faced again the temperature issue that came up before. it is due to the fluctuation of the diode temperature.

It was fixed today by Ronic and Daniele. it seems there are three diodes for monitoring the temperature, only one was connected, and it had issues, with some directions from alphanov. 

Ronic just removed the defective diode and soldered (connected) a different one. The amplifier should work without this issue. 

now we start searching for X-rays after locking the cavity remotely  

The goal of these measurements is to check if one can find some correlation between the CFP lock losses observed during a run and some CEM noise in the bunker.
the main issue is coming from a 20Hz noise apearing/disapearing in the laser cavity PZT signal.
is it a real cavity length noise that must be compensated or is it a pickup noise in the error signal which produce some unwanted compensation ?
the second issue (apearing much less often) is a higher frequency noise visible mainly in the transmission signal of the CFP which becomes wider and noisy during 1-2 seconds.

This morning, I installed a simple wire loop all around the table (the machine is OFF).
this wire is connected to the wire of a BNC connector at one end and to the ground of the same BNC connector at the other end to form a loop.
this BNC connector is connected to a 1kHz low pass filter to remove high frequency CEM noises and connected to a 10-1000 variable gain amplifier, plugged to the CH3 of the CFP scope (instead of the PDH/PZT-CAV signal).

I locked the CFP above 80kW after tuning the CEP.

I took several pictures to illustrate what I observed :
- on the right, the scope signal in time domain (blue = TRANS / green = PZT laser / cyan = REFLECT / pink = LOOP noise)
- on the left, the spectral analysis in frequency domain (red = PZT laser / white = LOOP noise)

in these 3 measurements, I don't do anything to the CFP, I just wait for the signals.

1) normal condition : see picture "Without Noise @ 20Hz"
the PZT signal in time domain is relatively flat and the 20Hz noise is barely visible in frequency domain.
we don't see any correlation with the LOOP noise for which one can see clear 50Hz and 100Hz peaks.

2) 20Hz noise condition : see picture "With Noise @ 20Hz"
the PZT signal in time and frequency domain exhibit a clear 20Hz oscillation.
the REFLECT and TRANS signals are also correlated to this 20Hz oscillation.
but still no correlation with the LOOP noise in time or frequency domain.

3) 20Hz noise lock loss condition : see picture "Delock @ 20Hz"
because of the lock loss the spectral analysis of the PZT signal is meaningless,
but in time domain, one can clearly see the growth of the 20Hz signal, inducing large noise on TRANS and REFLECT signal but still no correlation with the LOOP noise.

Conclusion : the 20Hz noise seems not related to any CEM noisy signal but more probably to a real mechanical noise in the CFP (not in the laser cavity because it would be seen in the phase noise measurements).

in this measurement, I tried to produce a tone around 400Hz with my voice, close to the FP cavity.
it is difficult to right volume as the cavity can easily lose the lock.

4) Voice noise condition : see picture "Voice noise @ 400Hz"
here, I changed the spectral span to 500Hz.
one can see a small bump in frequency domain around 400Hz due to the accoustic noise in the PZT signal.
the general shape of the PZT spectral signal is maybe related to the PID parameters : one can see more signal at lower frequencies.
in time domain, one can see TRANS and REFLECT signals are more noisy than before and these signals shapes seems identical to what has been observed when one has lock loss due to high frequency noise.
maybe we could put a mic in the bunker, connected to one scope to check if sometime one doesn't have much more accoustic noise...
 

This afternoon, we started almost all the parts of the machine with Vincent and Nicolas, and we didn't see any change in the Loop noise signal.
we saw only a peak comb at 10Hz on the Loop noise signal when the septum is ON. the amplitude of the peaks is then related to the voltage on the septum.
but we still don't see any noise correlation on the PZT signal.

the global conclusion about CEM noise is it is not related to laser PZT noise.

if the 20Hz oscillation is coming from a mechanical unstability in the CFP, we should be able to trigger it by moving the longitudinal motors of the CFP.
we tried also to move the MOT.03 and MOT.06 motors and we didn't see any clear correlation with the 20Hz oscillation.

the 20Hz oscillation could come from the CTA pressure variations on the housing => we can try to trigger the oscillation on the housing.

1st lock today with the second stage of the amplifier.
~ 300mW of injected power (but which proportion of the pump and of the signal ? => One must use a spectrometer to determine this proportion)
MAYBE the real injected power of the signal is lower => maybe the Finesse is higher !

Coupling ~ 75%

1.2 mW measured in transmission => ~800W inside the FP cavity
=> Gain ~ 3500 => Finesse ~ 11k !!!

Last Finesse measurement was about 19k ! :-(

First of all, we used and optical spectrometer to determine which proportion of pump and signal is in the injected beam.
the wavelength is THE SAME for the 2nd stage for the beam coming from the core or coming from the clad !
thus, it is impossible to use a spectrometer to obtain this proportion.

Thus, we made the assumption the pump beam (Sp) is unpolarized in contrary to the core beam (Sc) which is almost linearly polarized (Scp, Scs)

with a half waveplate and a PBS, we can define 2 cases in rotating the half waveplate at the output of the PBS :
maximum power : Scp + Sp/2 = a1
minimum power : Scs + Sp/2 = a2
The sum of both power a1 and a2 : a1+a2 = (Scp+Scs) + Sp is the total power of the beam before PBS.
The subtraction of power a1 and a2 : a1-a2 = Scp - Scs is independant of the pump power which can vary for example in opening an iris which normally block the most part of the pump beam.

if the core beam is perfectly linear, Scs=0 => a1-a2=Scp and Sp=2*a2
We did 2 measurements with a1=227mW, a2=67mW => Scp=160mW (Sp=134mW)
and with a1'=277mW, a2'=107mW => Scp=170mW (Sp'=214mW with a wider opened iris)

if these measurements and assumptions are correct, the real power injected to the cavity was 170mW (instead of 300mW).
with a coupling of 75% => Gain ~ 6.3k => Finesse ~ 19.7k !

to be confirmed...

since some days, we observe the cavity is difficult to lock and a strange 30Hz noise has appeared on the PZT signal which normally compensate the phase noise difference between the cavity and the laser.
to test if the problem could come from the laser, we changed the OneFive laser for the Koheras but we have exactly the same problem, thus we concluded that the problem come from the cavity or from the feedback.

today, we borrowed an accelerometer measurement setup to Julien Bonis to test if we can see a clear noise at 30Hz from the seismic noise.
we placed to accelerometer directly on the top of the cavity but the spectrum we obtained do not show a clear noise line at 30Hz, only a small excess of noise in this region...
nothing which clearly indicate the cause of our problem.

yesterday, we changed the feedback setup in changing the PDH box from n°2 to N°3 without any change in the 30Hz noise line.
today, we also changed the feedback setup by introducing and amplifier of 100 just after the PDH box.
if noise is coupled after the amp we should be more immunized from it... but nothing changed again.

still looking for the origin of this problem...

The 30 Hz noise issue has been solved !

It came from translation stage of P1 and/or P4.

Fabian remembered that close to the mirror's mount translation stage end coarse, there is a mechanical instability. The mount kind of "lift up" because of the spring strength and could induce resonance.

Initial positions:

• P1: - 1 500 000 
• S2: + 1 400 000
• S3: + 1 400 000
• P4: - 1 500 000

The 30 Hz noise was removed while moving only P1 closer (then if we put back P1 to the initial position, the noise clearly appear again):

• P1: - 1 300 000 --> no 30Hz noise
• S2: + 1 400 000
• S3: + 1 400 000
• P4: - 1 500 000

The 30 Hz noise appeared again while moving P4 further:

• P1: - 1 300 000 
• S2: + 1 400 000
• S3: + 1 400 000
• P4: - 1 600 000 --> 30Hz noise

Final positions:

• P1: - 1 300 000 
• S2: + 1 400 000
• S3: + 1 400 000
• P4: - 1 500 000

Installed and inputs:

• CW laser ; power = 101 mW
• PDH ;
  • at output
    • Low pass filter 50 ohm  DC-1.9 MHz
  • at input
    • freq = 8.4 MHz , Ampl = 1.2 V  , phase = 160 /
    • voltage =   ~ 6 V
• EOM ; freq = 8.4 MHz , Ampl = 100 mV , phase = 90
• Photodiodes
  • reflection
  • transmission
• beam profiler

Observed during this morning:

• coupling :   below 10% .... approximately ~ 8%
• Oscilloscope : 
  • yellow : transmission
  • purple : reflection
  • Blue : error signal
  • green : scan signal

Note : We observe a lot of higher order modes, and they are not occurring regularly.   

A schematic of the current setup is attached.

An image from the oscilloscope show a low coupling but clean error signal.

This afternoon, I did some alignment of the injection mirrors with a fast scan on the LaseLock to get a regular transmission photodiode signal.
the coupling increased to 10-15%

I got a first lock of the cavity only with the PZT.
there is some ringing on the error signal and the locking is quite noisy, which means the cavity LW seems to be more narrow than the Koheras LW, which is a good sign.
tomorrow, I will add an AOM to improve the locking.

I did some alignment after locking.
it was difficult because of the outside noise (engines producing loud and low-frequency noises).
the coupling is now about 20% (position saved in the injection motors software).
I added a half waveplate which has to be optimized.

This morning with Manar, we installed the AOM+RF amplifier and the associated fast feedback loop.
Now the locking with the Koheras is good with a coupling of 20%.
Tomorrow is dedicated to the measurement of the Finesse.... we will have to add the 2nd EOM.

We observed a very stable lock if the airflow is OFF.
when it is ON, the lock is much less stable... maybe a problem of optimization of the feedback... we will see that tomorrow if we have time enough.

We also observed a quite important sensititvity of the PZT voltage when slightly pushing on the housing with the finger: we clearly see the compensation on the PZT voltage.
I didn't calibrate this voltage but it seems to be an important fraction of 1µm... I would say around 100nm
 

Adding Oscilloscope images

• delocked + locked intervals showing the 20% coupling
• lock when the housing panels are closed + airflow on .
• lock when the housing panels are closed + air flow at lowest setting

an additional factor to the PZT voltage sensitivity is the housing panels, we see a decrease in the voltage when closing them.

Ending alignment series !!

As it can be seen on the first plot, even with a good locking (good reduction of "high" frequencies noise: we had better locking than on the picture) we still have very low frequency (~ 1Hz) fluctuations

these fluctuations prevent having a good measurement of the Finesse and they need to be understood.

they can come from fluctuations due to :

- input power
- input or feedback polarization
- phase noise
- alignment
- mode matching

1) input power:
we looked at the direct reflected power from the cavity without locking as an image of the input power.
=> we don't see these fluctuations

2) input polarization:
as there are many unconstrained fibers after the NKT (EOM/AOM) it could produce some polarization fluctuations.
we put a PBS and half and quarter waveplates in front of the reflected photodiode when the cavity is not locked to detect a change in the input polarization
=> we don't see these fluctuations

3) feedback polarization:
the beam on the PDH box is coming from a wedge which can change the relative gains between different polarizations.
we put half and quarter waveplates in the injection path to adapt the input polarization with the cavity mode polarization axis
and we put half and quarter waveplates and a PBS in front of the PDH box to select the right polarization for the feedback.
=> it didn't change the power fluctuations effect.

4) phase noise
we adjusted the feedback parameters (PID gains, AOM gain, locking offset, digital and analog low pass filters) to have a clean signal without high frequencies noise.
the transmission and coupling signals exhibit quite narrow lines at the millisecond level but we see 10-15% transmission change at the second level.
as the PID has a higher gain at low frequencies, one should not see more fluctuations at these frequencies.
or if it comes from external noise, one should see a correction signal on the PZT which is the image of these fluctuations => we don't see that.
we also stopped the cavity motors controllers without any effect on the transmission stability.

5) alignment
the alignment cannot change except if some vibrations are present, which should be seen also on the PZT correction signal => we don't see that.

6) mode matching
as the coupling is only 20% and the alignment has been already optimized, the mode matching is quite bad for sure.
could it be the source of the problem?
from experience, we know that a bad mode matching implies a bad locking but the reason is not clear.
=> to be discussed with Viktor: can we improve the mode matching with a simple lens?

.

This morning, me and Ronic managed to obtain the FSR and image of the finesse which is to be analyzed.

Adding:

• Beam Image at P4 propagation, no lens is added.
• Image of the Finesse on Oscilloscope

more information to be included later

Will continue in the afternoon .

The fluctuation problem has been solved.
It was simply the new scheme to inject 2 RF frequencies in a single EOM.
It maybe produces some standing waves in the EOM RF input and creates some phase noise.

we went back to the standard solution with 2x EOM and the problem vanished.
Now we have a very good lock and we can measure the Finesse.

to measure the Finesse, instead of having 2x EOM for the PDH and for the modulation sweep, I simply used 2x generators coupled with DC-blocks to a T connector (SMA) screwed directly on the EOM input.

as the transmission signal is fluctuating, it is not easy to have a good fit of the Airy peak.

if I measure the width at half of the maximum of the peak, I found roughly 10kHz instead of the awaited 2kHz... :-(

one needs a better evaluation with a more stable transmission signal and also to be sure that the L-shape metal piece (used to remove high order modes) does not introduce some losses and then reduce the Finesse...

After changing the way of injecting modulation for PDH and modulation for FSR scanning (we split the modulations to 2 different EOMs), the locking is very stable and we can measure the Finesse.

FSR = 33.34MHz

hereafter, the transmission power during an FSR scan and its fit (sweep of 300kHz of FSR in 2s)

we took 5 acquisitions which give a Finesse of :

4236
4254
4400
4045
4177

=> roughly Finesse = 4200 ! far from the 17000 previously obtained........