[Michael Rodruck, Alberto]
We continued the work started yesterday to pickoff the PSL reference cavity transmitted beam. We installed a PCLX-386.3 CVI lens ( f~750mm) between the two steering mirrors that we had already placed yesterday. The lens is to mode-match the beam into the fiber.
Initially we aligned the fiber coupler by using the guide beam provided by an OzOptics fiber-coupled laser. Then we improved the alignment by monitoring the power transmitted thorugh the coupler's pigtail.
The power coupled into the fiber is now 3.0 mW, which is more than 50% of the 5.5mW coming from the refcav and also more than twice the power that we currently couple into the fiber in the optics lab.
We also installed a flange on the PSL table with fiber connectors so that we can easily plug-in the new long fiber to the optics lab that is going to be installed tomorrow.
It would be nice if we could have also a Farady isolator to avoid scattered light from the fiber back into the refcav. I'm not sure if we have one available around.