Cleaning of the suspended test mass (Dec 2009)

Motivation

The round trip loss in the 40m cavity is estimated to be around 170ppm. We are going to confirm whether this comes from the hydrocarbon contamination and wiping of the mirror by acetone and isopropyl may result in improvement of the optical loss, or not.

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

Measurements before the cleaning

- 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

- Estimated finesse and arm loss

Measurements after the cleaning

- Visibility measurement

- Cavity pole measurement

- Estimated finesse


Overview of the plan

Note: this operation is fully manual and two person required to change condition (one has to be experienced )

Detailed plan