Cleaning of the suspended test mass (Dec 2009)

Motivation

The round trip loss in the 40m cavity is estimated to be around 160ppm. We are going to confirm wether this comes from the hydrocarbon contamination and wiping of the mirror by acetone and isopropy may result in improvement of the optical loss, or not.

In addition we cna evaluate the use of those solvents. If we observe the degradation of the loss or the finesse, we will forbid them.

Measurements before the vent

- Visibility measurement

Most recent arm visibility measurement has been done on Oct 07, 2009. [http://nodus.ligo.caltech.edu:8080/40m/2070 corresponding elog entry]

Measured arm reflectivity R_cav:
X arm: 0.875 +/- 0.005
Y arm: 0.869 +/- 0.006

- Cavity pole measurement

Most recent arm visibility measurement has been done on Nov 10, 2009. [http://nodus.ligo.caltech.edu:8080/40m/2226 corresponding elog entry]

Measured arm cavity pole frequency f_pole [Hz]:
X arm: 1720 +/- 70
Y arm: 1650 +/- 70

Overview of the plan

Detailed plan