Current Installed Setup, posted by Manar Amer at ThomX igloo about mechanics | lasers and optics | detectors and electronics 
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| Attached is the current setup in ThomX |
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Cavity beam Image , posted by Manar Amer at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics
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Updated beam image after change on the mode axis.
Taken after P4. |
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FP cavity mode axis change and Finesse measurement, posted by Ronic Chiche at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics
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this morning with Manar, we did a cavity mode axis change.
we checked the cavity mode centroid position on the beam profiler (placed behind P4) and changed it by roughly 1mm on the X-axis and by 500µm
on the Y-axis. |
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Cavity Lock and Finess measurment , posted by Manar Amer at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics | detectors and electronics 6x
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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 |
Cavity Lock and Finess measurment , posted by Manar Amer at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics | detectors and electronics
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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. |
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Cavity Lock and Finess measurment , posted by Manar Amer at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics | detectors and electronics
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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. |
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Cavity Lock and Finess measurment , posted by Manar Amer at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics | detectors and electronics
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one thing which could reduce the Finesse is the L-shape metal piece if it is slightly inserted in the FP-cavity mode path.
understanding where this L-shape effectively is is not easy... some pictures are attached.
Manar |
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FP cavity alignment , posted by Manar Amer at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics
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Note the direction of injection is M1 - M2 - M3 - M4
P1 - S2 - S3 - P4 |
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FP cavity alignment , posted by Manar Amer at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics
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The alignment is on hold until next week 17th - 18th Jan
an Alignment attempt will be done when the ring part close to the FP cavity is opened.
Manar |
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FP cavity alignment , posted by Manar Amer at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics
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***** Continuation of the alignment ---- FP Cavity Open --- ****
The cavity was put under outer pressure and was opened for the alignment
The alignment was done using CW koheras infrared laser and the inside mirrors irises |
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FP cavity alignment , posted by Manar Amer at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics
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Yesterday, we did the alignment again using Iris and beam profilers to obtain a more precise result.
at the end of the alignment procedure, we successfully obtained the beating modes.
the geometrical alignment seems good (weak odd modes) but we could need to put a telescope on the Koheras line as the beam size seems quite different |
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FP cavity alignment , posted by Manar Amer at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics | detectors and electronics
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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 |
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FP cavity alignment , posted by Manar Amer at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics | detectors and electronics
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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. |
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FP cavity alignment , posted by Manar Amer at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics | detectors and electronics
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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. |
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FP cavity alignment , posted by Manar Amer at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics | detectors and electronics
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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 |
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FP cavity alignment , posted by Manar Amer at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics | detectors and electronics
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Ending alignment series !!
Manar
Amer wrote:
Adding Oscilloscope images |
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FP cavity alignment , posted by Manar Amer at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics | detectors and electronics
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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. |
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FP cavity alignment , posted by Manar Amer at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics | detectors and electronics
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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. |
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Documentation about mechanics on Atrium, posted by Ronic Chiche at ThomX igloo about mechanics
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https://atrium.in2p3.fr/0dded51a-1cb0-43e6-ae0d-626cd5db7078
a lot of schematics regarding the FP cavity are stored by the mechanic group on the Atrium repository. |
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Alignment procedure, posted by Ronic Chiche at Optical room about mechanics | lasers and optics
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we did again the complete alignment procedure starting with iris and optimizing injection motors Ma and Mb, then installing mirror S2, S3, P4 and P1,
optimizing thetaX and thetaY axis for each motor.
everything was fine until we installed P1. we tried to optimize thetaX and thetaY of P1 and we clearly observed a strange motion when doing that |
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Alignment procedure, posted by Ronic Chiche at Optical room about mechanics | lasers and optics
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Picture of the installed mirrors inside the FP cavity.
To install an Iris instead of a mirror :
One has to remove manually the orange nuts and replace the mirror mount with the Iris mount. |
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FP cavity alignment, posted by Ronic Chiche at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics
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as the iris used to locate the FP-cavity axis have been removed before moving the table inside the Igloo, we have to find again this FP-cavity axis.
this morning with Viktor, we started to make the alignment of the FP-cavity with a red laser using only the "input window" iris mount
built by Yann. |
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FP cavity alignment, posted by Ronic Chiche at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics
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This afternoon, we continued the alignment of the red laser.
we did it using the 2 final injection mirrors.
we still see a clear transmission after M2, a weak transmission after M3, and almost nothing after M4 due to the power loss going through the dielectric |
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FP cavity alignment, posted by Ronic Chiche at ThomX igloo about lasers and optics
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A continuation of the alignment process was done, there was change in it due to variation in temperature,
it was done using the semiconducting laser, and we were able to obtain an output at M2.
2 references were placed before the alignment mirrors Ma and Mb , to fix the line when changing from semiconducting laser to CW "koheras" |
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Onefive ouput power and spectrum, posted by Loïc Amoudry at Optical room about lasers and optics
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After turning on, one can see the 133.33MHz Onefive output power for ~40min with OD2 filter (~/20). So the real output power is ~57mW. A measurment over
several days (15?) should come in few weeks.
The spectrum here has been taken one day after turning on the Onefive (see Fig. 133_spectrum_full and 133_spectrum). One can see the central |
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Onefive ouput power and spectrum, posted by Loïc Amoudry at Optical room about lasers and optics
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1) Note: The OneFive laser used for experimenting is the one for the SBox
but, for now only this laser arrived from the company so we are doing tests (measuring the spectrometer and power ) on it inside the ThomX cavity
clean room. |
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Beam size and finesse, posted by Loïc Amoudry at Optical room about lasers and optics
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FSR initiale : 33.34 MHz (S3 = -825000 et S4 = -825000)
Beam size initiale : wx=2.05mm et wy=2.15mm
Finesse initiale : 3400 |
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Beam size and finesse, posted by Loïc Amoudry at Optical room about lasers and optics
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Measurement behind P4 (planar mirror)
Loïc
Amoudry wrote:
FSR initiale : 33.34 MHz (S3 = -825000 et S4 = -825000) |
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Coating reflectivity, posted by Loïc Amoudry at Optical room about lasers and optics 6x
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| Coatings reflectivity curves and datas for HR Saphir, HR Suprasil and HR ULE. |
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Finesse measurement after the Edge installation, posted by Ronic Chiche at Optical room about lasers and optics
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After the Edge installation inside the cavity, the Finesse has been measured several times by modulation technique with an average around 16000:
(the scan speed is 50kHz in 10 seconds.)
So, it hasn't changed since the last measurement in June, just before the Edge installation. |
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Finesse measurement after confinement, posted by Loïc Amoudry at Optical room about lasers and optics
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After 3 months without human presence, finesse has been measured 3 times with average optimization:
- 16150
- 16067 |
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Pointing stability with CVBG, posted by Ronic Chiche at Optical room about lasers and optics
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Yesterday, with Titouan, we made some measurements on pointing stability of the laser beam after amplifier and CVBG.
the amplifier beam go through a first telescope to be small enough and colimated before going to CVBG's, then go to CVBG's and then is sent
through the FP-cavity telescope to the FP-cavity itself. |
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Amplifier laser diodes issue, posted by Ronic Chiche at Optical room about lasers and optics
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This is a long time issue for the ThomX amplifier : on the 4 pumping diodes available, the 1st diode has a higher temperature than the others around
40°C (see the picture).
the problem comes from the TEC which is not activated (see diodes parameter files in execel format). the related software windows are shaded. |
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Optical spectrum before and after CVBG, posted by Ronic Chiche at Optical room about lasers and optics
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Measurement of the optical spectrum with Avantes OSA before (1st picture) and after CVBG (2nd picture) with 2nd stage on the laser amplifier.
The 1st CVBG stretches the beam horizontally due to the default incident angle and the fact that different wavelength are reflected in the CVBG
with different depth. |
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Optical spectrum analyzer resolution, posted by Ronic Chiche at Optical room about lasers and optics
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The Koheras @0.5mW is directly connected with fibers FC/APC -> FC/PC to the Avantes optical spectrum analyzer.
The FWHM wavelength, measured with the Avantes software, is 0.126nm |
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Optical spectrum analyzer resolution, posted by Ronic Chiche at Optical room about lasers and optics
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Same measurement with Koheras @100mW and using fiber coupling lenses between Koheras and Avantes OSA.
The FWHM wavelength, measured with the Avantes software, is 0.116nm
Ronic |
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Beam pulse duration, posted by Ronic Chiche at Optical room about lasers and optics
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We installed the 2 CVBG for compression after the amplifier.
We used an interferometric technique with a delay line and combining the two paths in a CCD to measure interferences... see interferences.avi video
file |
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Beam pulse duration, posted by Ronic Chiche at Optical room about lasers and optics
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Yesterday, Loic installed a telescope before CVBG's to reduce the spot size on CVBG's and reduced the incident angle 0.5-1° on them (on the
datasheet the specified incident angle is 2.8°).
We used an interferometric technique with a delay line and combining the two paths in a CCD to measure interferences. |
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Beam pulse duration, posted by Ronic Chiche at Optical room about lasers and optics
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Yesterday, Loïc put the CVBG's back to their specified angles.
We used an interferometric technique with a delay line and combining the two paths in a CCD to measure interferences.
After supressing the global shape of the superposed pulses, one measures the amplitude of the remaining fringes (standard deviation) each 50µm |
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Beam pulse duration, posted by Ronic Chiche at Optical room about lasers and optics
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Last Thursday (20th of February), Loïc and Titouan realigned the stretcher CVBG to its nominal angle and they used an interferometric technique
with a delay line and combining the two paths in a CCD to measure interferences.
After supressing the global shape of the superposed pulses, one measures the amplitude of the remaining fringes (standard deviation) each 50µm |
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Powerup with 2.5ps pulses, posted by Loïc Amoudry at Optical room about lasers and optics
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A power up has been performed on ThomX until 65kW intracavity power. We didn't see any modes but stored power was really unstable since ~60kW (see
image tek00004.png).
Measurement report is shown in the table below. Gain seems to decrease against intracavity power. |
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ThomX Locked with CVBGs, posted by Loïc Amoudry at Optical room about lasers and optics
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ThomX has been locked with a new telescope while using compression CVBGs.
Coupling is ~50-55% and lock is stable.
Power up to ~50kW should follow up soon (stop when HOM are observed). We'll not go over ~100kW to not risk any breakdown due to the |