Reports until 18:45, Thursday 04 August 2011
H2 INS
lisa.barsotti@LIGO.ORG - posted 18:45, Thursday 04 August 2011 (1164)
More TRANSMON optics cleaning
 PRIMARY mirror 

After taking with the vendor, Ken suggested to using swabs and alcohol on the big spots that we could see on the surface. I did that, and I was quite successful, except in one case, in which I only managed to spread the spot (see first picture). I tried hard to remove it, but no way, I only make it bigger (second picture). I stopped when I saw a black point appearing in the middle, as I was damaging the coating.  It is not a big deal, I think, because the "big spot" is on the edge of the surface. The rest of the surface looks better than before.


 Big folding mirror 

This one had a sticker on the barrel of the optic (see third picture). I scrub with liquinox + water forever, to try to remove the glue. Results in the forth picture. This might need another FTIR. As far as the surface is concerned, I had pretty much the same issues as for the primary mirror: some of the spots can be removed, some just spread and they damage the coating once you try hard to remove them. Again, I did that on the edge, it should be ok. 

 Secondary mirror 

The 5th picture shows the mirror before I started cleaning. It has a damage on the edge, and you can see the usual spots, but overall it seems better than the others. I scrub with liquinox on the barrel, and wipe down with methanol the surface. I didn't try to remove the spots.

 Small folding mirror 

Picture 6 shows the other folding mirror as it was before cleaning. As for the secondary, I didn't try to improve the surface.


 Conclusions  

With a couple of additional FTIR we should establish if these mirrors can go in vacuum. I don't think it is worth to try to improve the surfaces more, it is very easy to damage the coating. 
Images attached to this report