Thu Feb 12 12:25:38 2026, Xuesi Ma, Infrastructure, General, Lab floor plans 8x
|
[Cece, Ma, Mary, Pooyan, Tyler, Paul]
We have continued the reorganization of our Physics 1125 and 1129 lab spaces. This includes:
Moving two workbenches from Room 1129 into Room 1125
The workbench with the oven is still in Room 1129
Assembling |
Wed Mar 8 18:35:52 2023, Pamella, Update, , Lab cleaning
|
Today Pamella finished cleaning of the cleanroom, starting with the HEPA vacuuming, mopping and clearing all floor with IPA wipes.
Also Pamella and Julian
finished cleaning of lab floor, starting with the HEPA vacuuming and mopping.
Shane and Pamella wiped down every surfaces of the laser table, computer
table and the table with the vacuum pieces inside the cleanroom.
Shane, Peter, Tayler, Pamella and Julian then wiped down every surface of the laser table |
Tue Apr 11 17:56:15 2023, Pamella, Update, General, Lab cleaning
|
Today Pamella and Julian finished cleaning of the cleanroom, starting with the HEPA vacuuming, mopping and clearing all floor with IPA wipes. Also we wiped
down some surfaces of the blue table, computer table and the top of chamber. |
Mon Jul 7 17:44:04 2025, Tyler, Update, General, Lab Organization  
|
[Tyler, Pooyan, Ma, Cece, Luke, Luis, Christina, Maple]
After acquiring some new equipment for the labs, a few of us spent time on Thursday and Friday
sorting through everything and storing them into their appropriate places. New vacuum parts, power supplies, cables, and much more were included. The rooms
are now ready for the lab tours commencing Tuesday afternoon. |
Wed Nov 8 17:55:49 2023, Jon, Update, General, Lab Clean-Up Day 1
|
[Jon, Tyler, Shane, Peter, Luis]
Today we completed the first phase of lab clean-up. Activities included:
CF/KF parts stored under the cleanroom table were removed and transferred to Physics 1129
Cleanroom workbench cleared, with all |
Tue Mar 4 03:05:42 2025, Xuesi Ma, Update, ELOG, LOG
|
1424564097.243212 2025/02/26 00:14:39 UTC Time start
12V 2A right after start all 8 elements
1424564478.079428 2025/02/26 00:21:00 UTC Time stop |
Thu Jul 16 13:14:26 2026, Cynthia, Update, Interferometer Simulations, LIGO pre-figuring team meeting summary
|
Pre-figuring meeting 7/14:
- the non-uniformity brought by annealing for ETM14 and 11 seems to be higher than expected, this meeting focused
on discussing about annealing data for ETM014 and 11 : https://dcc-lho.ligo.org/LIGO-T2600213
-we will receive more data for these, since
there are some residual power left in the data/plots shown in the meeting because of the reference sphere, and the exact reference sphere radius is unclear
- |
Mon Jul 31 12:39:01 2023, Shane, Update, Electronics, LED cable assemblies installed 
|
| Today I put together the two LED cable assemblies for the CyMAC and mounted them in the anti-aliasing and anti-imaging chassis. |
Tue Jun 27 14:04:42 2023, Sophia A. , Update, Measuring Noise in Interferometer, Interferometer set up and connection to red pitaya  
|
Today we (Sophia and Tyler) constructed the set-up for the electrical noise calculation that I will be conducting this summer. I have included images of
the setup below. Our system is effectively a green laser, that feeds into a type of polarizer, then into a beam splitter which sends the laser light down
two arms into detectors. We started by connecting the detectors to an oscilloscope to determine whether the signal will exceed 1V, as the red pitaya (our |
Thu Apr 27 16:23:44 2023, Cao, Pamella and Julian, Physics, VAC, Installing vacuum system (cont.) 
|
[Pamella, Cao and Julian, Shane]
Particles account
10:37 am: Starting the particles account
Zone 3:
0.3u: 1662
0.5u: 872
1.0u: 415
Zone 4:
0.3u: 831
0.5u: 124
1.0u: 0
11:14 am: Start removal of calibrated leak to install 45 deg elbow
11:21 am: |
Mon May 1 17:10:25 2023, Julian, Cao, Physics, VAC, Installing Pirani gauge and RGA probe onto to vacuum chamber  
|
[Julian, Cao]
03:00 pm: Particle count
: Zone 3
0.3 um: 498
0.5 um: 124
1 um: 124
:
Zone 4
0.3 um: 748
0.5 um: 457
1 um: 374
03:32 pm: Installing Pirani |
Mon Oct 3 17:21:39 2022, Cao, Update, TCS, Inspection of macor parts 7x
|
The macor parts arrived and inspected today. These include:
Macor spacer (drawing: LIGO_Redesign_Macor_Spacer_Drawing_v4.pdf
attached below), quantities: 40
No defects, damages observed
Parts are free from grease/ machining fluid
Wall thickness
of 1 mm appear to provide sufficient stiffness to part
Images of parts: Macor_spacer_0.jpg, Macor_spacer_1.jpg
|
Mon May 26 23:24:33 2025, Michael, Update, Interferometer Simulations, Initial Monte Carlo Simulations for Toroidal Mirrors Project
|
I've run an initial Monte Carlo simulation for statistical comparison of toroidal mirrors for the dual FROSTI TCS case. Below is the link to the slides.
slideshow |
Tue May 6 13:07:34 2025, Michael, Update, Interferometer Simulations, Initial Convergence Plots for Toroidal Mirrors Project  
|
| |
Mon Jun 3 14:14:39 2024, Tyler, Update, FLIR, Initial CIT FROSTI Analysis
|
[Tyler]
Attached below are the initial results of the CIT FROSTI testing analysis.
|
Tue Feb 13 11:54:45 2024, Tyler, Configuration, FLIR, In-Air Optical Test Configuration
|
Below is the proposed schematic for FROSTI optical testing, chosen so enough space is allotted for prototype assembly.
Steps to be taken include:
Reconstruct FLIR staging apparatus
Move test mass stand-in to cleanroom
Mark FLIR camera position on cleanroom |
Tue Mar 19 10:55:30 2024, Tyler, Update, FLIR, In-Air Optical Test
|
Below is an image I took using the FLIR just before leaving for the LVK meeting. The profile is roughly what we would expect (annular). Any distortions
seen are likely from the screen not being completely parallel to the plane of the FroSTI (i.e. the screen slightly bends in various locations). Next step:
In-vacuum test at CIT. |
Tue Nov 5 11:08:40 2024, Luis Martin, Update, VAC, ISO Test
|
[Luis, Luke, Ma Michael]
The isolation test was conducted on the vacuum system. Every pump was turned off under vacuum, and pressure measurements were taken
every minute for 15 minutes. The results are displayed in the sheet linked at the end of this report. The pressure of the main volume dropped very slowly.
|
Tue Jun 21 18:31:49 2022, Cassidy and Phoebe, Update, Cameras, IR Absorbing Screen and FLIR Camera Setup  
|
Today we set up the IR absorbing screen and the camera on the optical table, as well as tested that the camera was functioning as expected (picking up heat
sources beyond the screen).
Screen Setup
The screen was set up by clamping it between two rectangular posts on each side. First, two posts
were set up with 22 in. between them (thus allowing the screen to span a total distance of up to 24 in. when clamped down). To best stabilize the screen |
Mon Apr 3 17:04:05 2023, Aiden, Summary, General, IDP Scroll Pump Assembly
|
Aiden installed the isolation valve and the exhaust silencer kits on the IDP-3 Scroll pump. The entire assembly still needs to be wiped down but overall
no residue came off when putting on the kits. |
Sun Apr 10 15:39:49 2022, Rutuja Gurav, HowTo, Computer Scripts/Programs, HowTo: Renew the Let's Encrypt SSL certificate using certbot
|
Port 80 is kept closed by default. This might be causing the certbot auto-renewal cronjob to fail. Therefore we must renew the certificate manually.
Step 1: Open port 80. (This is needed as the certificate renewal process runs some tests which requires client communication over |
Sun May 14 15:50:48 2023, Cao, Infrastructure, Computers, High resolution display of logrus machine
|
[Cao]
The display resolution of the logrus has been 1064x768 and has been the only option, which is not great. While remote access to logrus using
rdesktop allows rendering a virtual display of user's chosen resolution, it is not fast when using graphic-intensive program. NoMachine allows user to
take over and control the machine remotely and thus appears as the same machine. However, NoMachine cannot render a virtual display like rdesktop. This |
Mon Mar 31 11:26:45 2025, Luke Johnson, Update, Scripts/Programs, Heatmaps of power delivery performance 
|
These plots show the required temperature to release 100W of power and the efficiency of a particular configuration with half-width w and distance away
from the barrel z. I want to add to these heat maps a limit line that has restricts the proximity of the reflectors from the barrel. |
Fri Sep 6 14:34:52 2024, Luke , Update, VAC, Heating tape work
|
On the 5th I had tried to start baking the vacuum chamber however certain parts of the chamber were getting too hot and causing the controllers to shut
off. So I turned them off so that the next day I could rearrange the temperature probes. I then on the 6th set them up so that instead of overshooting
the temperature they would be a little low in places. |
Wed Jun 14 15:35:36 2023, Pamella, Update, VAC, Heating system installation
|
[Pamella and Cao]
Heating system installation - Second day.
Today we kept installing the equipment for the heating system.
First: Started installing the two heating cable around the chamber vacuum, the arms and covered it with aluminum tape.
Second: Started
installing the insulation stuff around the vacuum chamber and around the connections points (the arms) in the vacuum chamber.
Third:Started |
Thu Aug 6 14:39:47 2026, Joshua, Update, General, Heating Element Power Data
|
This is a measurement done to determine which heating elements output the most power. FROSTI was supplied 33V, and a photodetector was held to the
center of each heating element directly at the aperture.
Element #1 (top), RTD0 - 0.33 V |
Tue Sep 3 15:52:56 2024, Luke, Update, VAC, Heater tape initilization
|
[Luke, Tyler, Jon]
On the 3rd we set up the pid controllers for the heater tapes and after putting on the insulation we started heating them up. We first brought
it to ~50C and let it stabilize, there was about a 6-7 degree difference between the RGA and the barrel temperature, with the barrel being higher. We then |
Mon Jun 12 18:52:00 2023, Pamella, Update, General, Heater system parts - Wiped and bagged
|
[Pamella]
Cleaning the heater system parts.
04:32 pm: Started wiping the heater system parts.
06:38 pm: Finished wiping the heater
and some parts to the system. I wiped, tagged and bagged the heater system, power cables, adapter cables and power connectors. Also I wiped, bagged and
tagged the aluminum foil tape.
06:43 pm: I putted all bags inside the cleanroom.
To do: I started but I was not able to finished |
Tue Jun 20 17:28:23 2023, Pamella, Update, Electronics, Heater system parts - Wiped
|
[Pamella]
Heating system
Wiping the heater system parts.
04:37 pm: Started wiping the electronic device
part for the heater system (HL101 Series Digital Benchtop temperature limit control).
05:19 pm: Finished wiping the parts to the heater
system (HL101 Series Digital Benchtop temperature limit control). I wiped the HL101 Series Digital Benchtop temperature limit control and I didn't bagged |
Tue Jun 13 21:08:46 2023, Pamella, Infrastructure, VAC, Heater system - Installation 
|
[Pamella, Cao and Jon]
Heating system installation
Today we started installing the equipments for the heating system.
First: Started installing the heating cable on the top lid and covered it with aluminum tape.
Second: Started installing the insulation
cover on top of the chamber lid.
Third:Started installing the heating cable from under the vacuum chamber and covered with aluminum tape.
|
Mon Jan 27 11:29:38 2025, Xuesi Ma, Update, , Heater Element Test  
|
[Ma, Cece, Luke, Mary, Shane]
On Friday (Jan 24), we installed the heater elements on the stand. The heater elements are arranged from 1 to 8, oriented from right to left
as shown in Attachment 1. Each wire has been labeled according to its corresponding element number and type (e.g., RTD connections, heater connections). |
Mon Feb 5 14:17:52 2024, Aiden, Update, VAC, Heater Element RGA Scan 
|
Here are the new RGA scans for the powered Heater elements. The pressure at the time of taking data was 2.88 e-8 torr. The HC levels are at 40 e-10 torrl/s
which is not bad but still higher than the lowest we have recorded. |
Thu Feb 8 17:37:48 2024, Aiden, Update, VAC, Heater Element RGA Scan 
|
Took more RGA data now that the heaters are powered by 18V. The pressure of the system during the data taking was 3.8 e-8 torr. The RGA scans seem to have
gotten worse as well with this power increase. |
Mon Feb 12 17:35:47 2024, Aiden, Update, VAC, Heater Element RGA Scan  
|
Took more RGA data before and after increasing the heater elements to 300 degC and before heating them up.
Started Bake 11 as well to hopefully prevent any hydrocarbons from getting captured by the room temperature walls of the chamber. The PID controllers
were set to 100C. |
Mon Feb 19 14:17:50 2024, Aiden, Update, VAC, Heater Element RGA Scan
|
Three days after the completion of Bake 11, the Heater elements RGA scan looks much cleaner. The HC level is back down to 33 e-10 torrl/s with the pressure
at 2.13 e-8 torr. I could not take a= scan with the Argon closed as it was left open during the bake and not closed since then. |
Fri Jan 31 15:03:09 2025, Xuesi Ma, Update, , Heater Element Circuit Check
|
table {
width: 100%;
border-collapse: collapse; /* Merges borders into a single line */
}
th,
td {
border: 1px solid #ddd; /* Adds a 1px solid border */
padding: 8px;
text-align: left;
}
th
{
background-color: #f2f2f2; /* Adds a light gray background to headers */
}
[Ma] Wed 1/29/2025 |
Mon Jul 14 20:45:20 2025, Luke , Summary, Cleanroom, HEPA filter performance metrics
|
[Luke, Luis]
We’ve been looking into methods for evaluating the performance of the HEPA filters in the clean room. Measuring flow rate appears to be
a promising approach, since the filter manual specifies a recommended minimum of 70 ft/min. |
Mon Jul 11 14:29:45 2022, Jon, Omnistructure, General, HEPA filter installed
|
Today I unpacked and installed the new HEPA filter for the lab. It is an Omni CleanAir OCA1210 capable of 1200 CFM. This flow rate is sufficient to turn
over the air in the room once every 4 minutes, or 14 times per hour. Hopefully this will cut down on our particulate accumulation issues. |
Sun Apr 19 15:22:08 2026, Pooyan, Infrastructure, Cleanroom, HEPA fan air flow measurment
|
[Ma, Mary, Tyler, Pooyan]
HEPA fan air flow measurements are done with the fans sitting on their side in the lab, and the anemometer being 24in away from the filter face
of the fan. Per company's documents, we need to replace the filter if the air flow velocity drops under 38-45 fpm for the medium settings.) |
Thu Jul 30 14:15:52 2026, Joshua, Update, General, HBT SURF Update #5 - Group Meeting Slides 
|
| Attached are my group meeting slides and some calculations from Mary which predict the photon bunching cross correlation signal. |
Tue Jul 21 15:47:55 2026, Joshua, Update, General, HBT SURF Update #4 - Alignment & First Measurement
|
HBT Alignment & First Measurement
HBT setup was aligned for maximum power on the transmissive arm, then the beamsplitter
was tilted to equalize the power in each arm. Then, we set the board at
Total power: 0.156 V |
Thu Jul 16 10:52:02 2026, Joshua, Update, General, HBT SURF Update #3 - group meeting slides
|
| |
Thu Jul 16 10:29:19 2026, Joshua, Update, General, HBT SURF Update #3 
|
[Joshua, Mary, Ma, Abhi]
On Wednesday (7/15), the particle count measurement was sufficient, so the FROSTI was transferred into the cleanroom. We unmounted it from
the plastic base, and secured it to the optical table. We also transferred the neccessary parts for the HBT setup and began assembly. The breadboard was |
Thu Jul 2 13:27:48 2026, Joshua Marmor, Update, General, HBT SURF Update #1
|
| Update on the progress for the HBT measurement. |
Tue Feb 18 10:02:16 2025, Xuesi Ma, Update, , Group Meeting Slides 2/18/2025
|
| https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1WiV2VqS0BzXNCK6VYYQ-Ty8xlHnzXatQaFbMf1-0rsY/edit?usp=sharing |
Wed Oct 2 10:31:46 2024, Xuesi Ma, Configuration, , Group Meeting Slides 10/2/2024
|
Group Meeting slides for Non-deterministic Heater Response.
|
Thu Apr 27 21:43:07 2023, Jon, Physics, VAC, Grounding vacuum system 
|
This afternoon I made up a green 10 AWG grounding cable and connected it to the vacuum system.
One end is tightly connected to the bottom flange of the vacuum chamber (photo 1). It is run along and up the table framing to the top of the cleanroom,
where it exits into the overhead cable tray in the same location as the other power cables. It drops down from the top of the server rack all the way to |
Fri Apr 28 18:16:57 2023, Cao, Physics, VAC, Grounding vacuum system
|
Quote:
This afternoon I made up a green 10
AWG grounding cable and connected it to the vacuum system. |
Tue Sep 16 12:18:09 2025, Liu, Update, Interferometer Simulations, Grid search optimization for single-ring FROSTI
|
| Grid search optimization for single-ring FROSTI |
Tue Aug 1 16:22:35 2023, Celeste, Update, TCS, Graphical Updates to HOM RH Modification, Tuesday 8/1
|
| Slides 20-33 are newly added (data/graphs from parameter sweep feature-1/8th heater unit length varied from 10% of original to 100% of original). |