JTK Notebook

To Do

Short Term

• Modify diode mount for water cooling (almost done, will drill screw holes once water blocks get here)
• Build crystal mount

Long Term

• Assemble Ti:sapph laser
• Build box for Ti:sapph laser

Theory

• Work through Raman System Effective Hamiltonian calculations

To Buy

• Water chiller accessories (tubing, etc.)
• Ti:sapph cavity mirrors (probably from Layertec)
• Ti:sapph cavity saturable absorber
• Ti:sapph extracavity optics
• Blue optics (cylindrical-lens telescope, focusing lens)

Log

6/23/2015

• Got in early to do some machining but all three mills were already being used...
• Sent passive-aggressive emails following up on the mirror quotes.
• Got a quote on indium foil. Sent in purchase request.
• Started working through Raman system theory.

6/22/2015

• Ordered TEC, thermistor, and Kapton tape from Thorlabs. Ordered new mount from Newport. Ordered water chiller from eBay. Ordered aluminum from the stock room to make the aluminum part of the crystal mount.
• Asked for a quote on indium foil.
• Asked for quotes on making the copper part of the crystal mount from eMachineShop and Advantech Machining.
• No response on any of the mirror quotes except the questions from Layertec. Will send passive-aggressive emails tomorrow.

6/18/2015

• Realized the whole mounting scheme won't work because the Thorlabs rotation/translation mount is too large. Will rework design tomorrow to use this mount instead. Will likely have to buy more aluminum and copper stock (gdosafjoijforngoasjf). May look into getting the copper part of the mount outsourced - it's going to involve fairly precise machining on a small piece, and the shop will be closed for a week and a half anyway. The aluminum part I'll do next week.

6/17/2015

• Cut channel into diode laser mount. Waiting to drill screw holes until I get the part to see if I need to mill any more out to make it fit.

6/16/2015

• Got questions back from Thomas at Layertec. Sent answers. They're working on a quote.

6/15/2015

• Ordered water blocks from Custom Thermoelectric.
• Ordered rotation/translation mount from Thorlabs.
• Designed channel cut for diode laser water cooling modification. Looks like it should work with no problems...
• Designed crystal mount.
• Ordered crystal mount copper/aluminum stock.

6/11/2015

• Talked to Deniz about lasing direction. Decided we don't need an intracavity isolator for the Ti:sapph laser. The output coupler will provide enough asymmetry to force lasing in the correct direction.
• Sent email to Layertec requesting quote for Ti:sapph cavity mirrors.
• Talked to Zach about design for Ti:sapph crystal mount. Decided on basic design using water block, possibly from Custom Thermoelectric. Crystal should probably be wrapped in thin indium foil for better contact with copper. Also talked about cutting a "channel" out of the diode laser aluminum block to add a similar water block below the TEC.