We will be configuring the RGA line to remove the spherical cube from the system. Currently our plan for the new design is to connect a 4.5" to 2.75" Reducing Cross to the gate valve on the vacuum system. It will be orientated vertically with the turbo pump on top coming off the end will be a 90 deg elbow. On the bottom there will be a 4.5" to 2.75" Zero length reducer attached to that will be a Tee on one side the pressure sensor and the other the RGA. Connected to the elbow will be the calibrated leak. 

The only parts not readily available are the ZLR and the 2.75" gaskets

We moved Frosti into the cleanroom and debugged it to make sure everything was working. One of the DB25 pins broke off at the connector for element 1 so it needed to be recrimped. Element 6 short circuited but fixed with adjustment to the heater power pin position. We connected the power and sensor connectors to the power box and recalibrated the RTD sensors.

Drawings and CAD models of the straight-edge designs are exported, and are visualized in SOLIDWORKS. Two are attached. One is a single edge of the evenly spaced polygon design with 16 edges, and the other is the 8x2 design, with two neighboring edges grouped together to replace the original single curved heater.

For the straight edge design in COMSOL, ray power detectors were placed at the heater's front surface. The irradiance is shown in figure. The amount of light rays deposited back to the heater is small when close to the center, where it is closer to the original ring. The ray power increases as we move further away from the center toward the edges. In addition, the total power integrated at the heater's front surfaces is about 21% of the original heater's emitted power. This could account for the power efficiency difference between the straight edge design and the ring design, as shown in plot for instance.

Set-up of the first CDS workstation for 1129, ws3, is complete and the machine is ready for use. The login credentials are the same as the other lab machines.

All that now remains is to install a permanent cable tray for running the new Ethernet cables between the electronics rack and bench (they are currently dangling from the suspended lights).

cleaning cleanroom and particle count

• 10:45 am: ran zero count test on particle counter
• 11:02 am: started particle count
  • zone 3:
    • 0.3 u: 3284
    • 0.5 u: 1247
    • 1.0 u:332
• zone 4:
  • 0.3 u: 1829
  • 0.5 u: 581
  • 1.0 u: 207
• 11:15 am: began hepavac of rest of lab
• 11:19 am: began surface check and wipedown, including softwalls
• 11:32 am: finished hepavac of rest of lab
• 11:35 am: started vacuuming the cleanroom floor
• 11:45 am: finished vacuuming the floor
• 11:47 am: started mopping the floor
• 11:55 am: finished mopping the floor
• 11:56 am: started cleaning the buckets
• 11:57 am: started mopping with IPA wipes
• 12:02 pm: finished mopping with IPA wipes
• 12:03 pm: changed sticky floor mats
• 12:04 pm: started particle count
  • zone 3:
    • 0.3 u: 3117
    • 0.5 u: 374
    • 1.0 u: 124
• zone 4:
  • 0.3 u: 4531
  • 0.5 u: 540
  • 1.0 u: 0

[Jon, Pooyan, Tyler]

A few computer machine changes have been made. 

• Logrus moved from 1119 to 1129. It is up and running with the same IP address as before. 
• A new Windows machine (host name: spica, IP:192.168.1.14) is installed in the 1119 server rack. It is connected to the RGA scanner with the serial port and is specifically used for that purpose. 
  • Update: The machine was off on 6/25, although it was left on 6/24. We think that it might have been because of Windows' default setting to suspend/hibernate the machine after idleness. To resolve this, I used  "powercfg /change" command to set all the following parameters equal to zero. The machine is still running on 6/26. 

    monitor-timeout-ac
    monitor-timeout-dc
    disk-timeout-ac
    disk-timeout-dc
    standby-timeout-ac
    standby-timeout-dc
    hibernate-timeout-ac
    hibernate-timeout-dc

• A new Debian machine (hostname: megatron, IP:192.168.1.16) is installed in the 1129 server rack. This machine is intended to be used for FEA/simulation work. A new 2TB WD Green SSD is used as its main disk drive. 

   At the moment, “controls” is the only user, and there are no apps/libraries installed on the machine.

  • Update: Jon installed LIGO cds-workstation tools and MiniConda on 6/26. 
  • Update: Pooyan and Liu set the following conda environments:
    • Env named “finesse” with Python 3.12.3 and Finesse version 3.0a24 installed. Finesse was installed via the source code. The subdirectory “/home/controls/packages” is used to store the package sourcecodes.
    • Env named “fenicsx” with the same version of Python and Finesse as the previous env, with the latest version of FEniCSx (0.8) and the test-mass-thermal-state installed.  

In the previous post, we saw that for the heater element design with straight edges in replacement of the current eight-element ring-like design, it provides the similar Gaussian-like irradiance profiles, but with smaller power delivery efficiencies, as shown in the plot. This turned out to result in similar but less prominent thermal effects.

They only differ from the original baseline design by a source power rescaling, however, as shown in the plot, where we see the power-rescaled irradiance profiles for the straight edge designs are close to that for the ring design. The resulting temperature profiles and thermal distortions are shown in plot and plot. The thermal effects for the 16 straight-edge design with renormalized source power for instance are strikingly similar to that for the original ring design.

An alternative straightened heater element design has also been investigated with COMSOL FEA simulation. As shown in the attached, in this new design each heater element component is cut with multiple straight edges but remains connected, shown in the same colors (green and red). In the example, four straight edges are cut from each of the four heater components (4x4=16 edges in total). There is no spacing between the neighboring edges from the same element component, but the edges from different components are separated by 2mm, as can be seen in the attached. This new N-in-one straight edge design offers similar irradiance compared to that for the evenly-spaced N-sided regular polygon straight edge design with the same number of edges, as shown in the plot. It however has fewer heater components, four in this case, which makes it easier to implement in assembly and wiring, and less vulnerable to electrical and thermal shorts with their fewer heater element pins.

I have been looking at the feasibility of an alternative heater element design for FROSTI that replaces the original ring-like heater elements with n rectangular elements with straight edges. They form an n-sided regular polygon that could well approximate the original annular ring if n is large enough. This eliminates curved surfaces requirement for the heater elements, which was the source of the many month production delay for the prototype parts.

This design was implemented in COMSOL, shown in the attached. From the face on view, each element has a trapezoid shape with straight edges. The edges between neighboring elements are parallel, with a space of 2 mm in between them.

The ray tracing and thermal analysis obtained from COMSOL are shown in the attached pdf.

In particular, the 2D irradiance profiles were obtained from the ray tracing (so far from the front heating surfaces only). The 1D radial profiles were integrated and shown in the attached. The power delivery efficiency for the original ring-like heater element design is integrated to be roughly 65%, for comparison. The plot also shows the radial irradiance profiles for three different straight-edge designs, which correspond to 16 edges, 18 edges, and 24 edges. We see that with the straight-edge designs, the irradiance profiles stay in a good Gaussian shape. In addition, with a larger number of edges, the power efficiency increases, but is always less than the case for the optimized ring-like design.

The thermal distortions for the TM were also obtained from COMSOL, using the irradiance profiles at the TM HR. As shown in the attached, with the straight-edge design, the effects on the thermal lens OPD and the HR surface deformation are similar to the ring design, but with less severe edge roll-off for instance.

Upon further inspection, one adjustment was made to the FROSTI profile analysis: changing the transmission value of the ZnSe viewport. It was initially assumed that the viewport possessed an AR coating, which would bring the transmission into the 90% range. Without the coating, it drops to roughly 70%. Assuming no coating, the estimated delivered power was calculated to be 11.7 W. This is consistent with the estimated power given from the Hartmann sensor analysis, thus it is believed that the viewport indeed had no coating.

Attached below are the initial results of the CIT FROSTI testing analysis.

cleaning cleanroom and particle count

• 1:45 pm: ran zero count test on particle counter
• 1:50 pm: started particle count
  • zone 3:
    • 0.3 u: 2660
    • 0.5 u: 332
    • 1.0 u: 41
• zone 4:
  • 0.3 u: 8106
  • 0.5 u: 2494
  • 1.0 u: 831
• 2:08 pm: began surface check and wipedown, including softwalls
• 2:22 pm: started vacuuming the floor
• 2:39 pm: finished vacuuming the floor
• 2:43 pm: started mopping the floor
• 2:53 pm: finished mopping the floor
• 2:54 pm: started cleaning the buckets
• 2:59 pm: started mopping with IPA wipes
• 3:06 pm: finished mopping with IPA wipes
• 3:10 pm: changed sticky floor mats
• 3:06 pm: started particle count
  • zone 3:
    • 0.3 u: 1496
    • 0.5 u: 83
    • 1.0 u: 0
• zone 4:
  • 0.3 u: 789
  • 0.5 u: 83
  • 1.0 u: 41

It should be noted that we can not have the zero length reducer and the gate valve on the same arm as they both have blind tapped holes. We need to decide if we want the gate valve or not as if we do, we will need to use the 3 inch long reducer.

Important Measurements:

From the back of the flange to the back of the RGA: 25.25 in

Height from bottom of the blank to the bottom of the chamber: 2.75 in

Some changes have been made to the FLIR readout code to help improve its functionality:

• More accurate temperature readings than before due to updates in the calculation procedure. A bug was causing one of the parameters to not update correctly; this is now fixed.
• Saved data now stored in HDF5 files rather than CSV.
• User can now enable automatic data storage by specifying a collection interval (in minutes). The choice of manually saving data is still present if desired.

Today the FROSTI RTD readout chassis underwent a redesign:

Instead of the original ratiometric method, which involved wiring the FROSTI RTDs in series, each element is individually powered by separate excitations. Each element additionally possesses its own reference resistor of 100 Ohm. Now, if an RTD experiences an electrical short, it should not affect the measurements of the others in sequence, as it had with the original design.

cleaning cleanroom and particle count

NOTE: particle counter was found dead, with the charging dock unplugged. For future reference, if you need to unplug the dock, please either plug it back in when you're done, or make a note in an elog so someone else can come down and charge it.

• 1:07 pm: ran zero count test on particle counter
• 1:26 pm: started particle count
  • zone 3:
    • 0.3 u:1787
    • 0.5 u:457
    • 1.0 u:41
• zone 4: We were only able to charge the particle counter a small amount before starting the cleaning, so it died again halfway through this measurement, and we didn't get results for zone 4. In interest of time, we just put it on the charger and started the cleaning.
• 1:49 pm: began surface check and wipedown, including softwalls
• 2:16 pm: started vacuuming the floor
• 2:24 pm: finished vacuuming the floor
• 2:26 pm: started mopping the floor
• 2:32 pm: finished mopping the floor
• 2:32 pm: started cleaning the buckets
• 2:35 pm: started mopping with IPA wipes
• 2:43 pm: finished mopping with IPA wipes
• 2:43 pm: changed sticky floor mats
• 2:45 pm: started particle count
  • zone 3:
    • 0.3 u: 1288
    • 0.5 u: 124
    • 1.0 u: 0
• zone 4:
  • 0.3 u: 415
  • 0.5 u: 290
  • 1.0 u: 0

Attached is a brief recap PDF file. A video file showing separate HOMs plots for the cavity scan with ETM08 surface map is also attached.

The codes are available at https://git.ligo.org/uc_riverside/hom-rh/-/tree/main/SIS

After meeting and discussing the current state of our work with Prof. Fulda a few weeks ago, we have decided that the best next step for the gtrace project is its integration into finesse work. Our first step towards this integration involved creating a sequential beam trace in contrast to the previous non sequential gtrace simulations. A sequential beam trace not only allows for faster runtimes of the simulation (<1 second) but also allows for more direct reading of certain beam parameters (beam size, gouy phase, and angle of incidence). The sequential model was created alongside a yaml output which provides values of parameters, now including the angle of incidence on a mirror.

Last Monday, Pooyan gave a report to the Cosmic Explorer optical design team on the current state of our project and the ultimate goal of our work. During the same meeting another group working in the optical design team presented their own work with gtrace and optical design, focusing more on optimization of parameters based on desired beam sizes at each mirror. It might be a good idea to begin attempting to bring our individual projects together to allow for collaboration and further developments.

Currently, only the crab1 layout has a sequential trace model. Pooyan is currently working on creating a finesse model for crab1 to serve as a proof of concept for how gtrace could be integrated with finesse by providing useful values such as angles of incidence.

[Jon, Pooyan]

Moved Chimay from the server rack in Physics 1119 to a new rack in Physics 1129. It is connected to the switch in that rack and has the same ip address as before.

All services are up and running.

It appears that JupyterHub creates some processes whenever a user connects to an instance of it, but in some cases does not stop those processes after the user is not using that instance. This results in having lots of running idle processes, each using a small bit of the resources. Those processes are killed now as a result of rebooting. It might be a good idea to manually restart JupyterHub (or the whole machine) every few months to avoid this.

Another re-fit, but this time the quadratic coefficient (beta) is set to 1.003e-6:

       R_0 (ohm)   Alpha (1/C)

RTD 0   79.7386   0.001863

RTD 1   78.6248   0.002359

RTD 2   81.3254   0.002211

RTD 3   74.6127   0.003509

RTD 4   80.6652   0.001988

RTD 5   78.5450   0.002127

RTD 6   77.0144   0.002268

RTD 7   83.0204   0.002288

       R_0 (ohm)   Alpha (1/C)

RTD 0   79.3962   0.002031

RTD 1   78.2874   0.002530

RTD 2   80.9775   0.002381

RTD 3   74.2947   0.003684

RTD 4   80.3199   0.002157

RTD 5   78.2106   0.002297

RTD 6   76.6825   0.002438

RTD 7   82.6645   0.002458

Measurements taken can be found here. An uncertainty of 1 C was assumed for temperature.

We noticed that the RTD temperature readings given on the Cymac were off, and traced the issue to miscalibration in the relationship between the resistance and temperature of each RTD (Callendar-Van Dusen eqn). Below is the table of values inferred from independent measurements of temperature and resistance to rectify this problem. This data was then fitted to better determine the coefficients present in the temperature-resistance relation:

       R_0 (ohm)   Alpha    Beta

RTD 0   80.8674   0.001315   4.273e-6

RTD 1   79.5704   0.001887   3.7873e-6

RTD 2   81.7334   0.002014   2.1724e-6

RTD 3   74.3060   0.003677   3.6022e-8

RTD 4   81.1350   0.001761   2.3598e-6

RTD 5   77.9610   0.002423   -7.5192e-7

RTD 6   78.7980   0.001373   6.2909e-6

RTD 7   83.8616   0.001890   3.3529e-6

Cleaned and baked the Cal Tech FROSTI legs and showed Luke the procedure on how to clean parts.

Upon finishing the FROSTI assembly last week, we ran into some electrical issues. An electrical short was found between two of the d-sub pins (2 and 8). It appears that the pins were somehow coming into contact with the aluminum surrounding them. This was causing the power supply to trip. The issue was seemingly fixed by adjusting the positioning of the cabling leading out of the reflector. When handling the device in the future, please make sure to keep the wiring as undisturbed as possible. The setup is rather fragile, and moving the cabling around could potentially reintroduce a short like this.

FROSTI assembly was completed today. The RTD and power wires were terminated at the DB-25 connectors and the legs were put on. It is currently placed in front of the stand-in test mass (~5 cm away). The FLIR has also been moved back to it's nominal position. As of now, it appears there are some shorts within the power cabling. This will be a focus of tomorrow's work.

Heater 1= 72.8; 80.6

Heater 2= 69.5; 80.8

Heater 3= 70; 83.2

Heater 4= 70.6; 78.7

Heater 5= 69.9; 80.6

Heater 6= 71.1; 78.2

Heater 7= 68.5; 76.8

Heater 8= 70.1; 82.8

FROSTI assembly began today. After a final set of RGA scans were taken, the vacuum chamber was vented and the reflectors were removed. The chamber was then resealed and pumped down again. 

Today we completed the installation of the Macor hardware and heater elements between the two reflector halves. Tomorrow we will route, bundle, and terminate the power and sensor cables.