Hi everyone—my name is Hugh Hatcher. This week at LASP (Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics) in Boulder, Colorado, I continued collaborating with Dmitry Vorobiev and the rest of the team on our ongoing UV fiber-optics project.
This week I was getting back into the lab after my short break however, over the time I was gone a few issues had halted the fiber experiment I had been working on. One of the pumps (the turbo pump) that is required to bring the vacuum chamber down to pressure had broken as the bearings had gone bad. Luckily there was a warranty on it so next week we will be able resume the ongoing cut-back experiment where we measure loss in decibels over lengths of fiber to quantify their performance.
In the mean time this week we did a small side project to advance the overall goal of the fiber experiment by creating a simple fiber bundle(images attached) as a proof of concept that we could make a larger bundle out of smaller hollow core fibers. This small bundle only included 7 2ft. fibers however by going the process of creating a bundle we learned a lot about the fabrication process of parts and some of the challenges of working with the fibers in larger quantities. Our design for the bundle ended up being very simple where we drilled small holes in two delrin sheets one side with a hexagon pattern and the other side in a straight line (to use in spectroscopy). Then we glued the fibers into their holes using small amounts of epoxy ensuring that we didn’t get any on the tip of the fiber because that would block the light and ruin the bundle. The prototype worked well, and we were able to show that we could move forward with denser, more compact bundle designs using even smaller fibers.
We also took on a small improvement project related to the main experiment. We designed and fabricated custom shims to support the fiber ends at the lamp and monochromator ports of the vacuum chamber. These shims help reduce bending stress, which can lead to vertical misalignment and inconsistent measurements. By stabilizing the fiber. we hope to increase the experiment’s repeatability and overall data reliability.
Outside of the lab, CJ and I spent some time enjoying the outdoors—we went fishing around a few lakes near Boulder. We didn’t catch anything this time, but it was a nice break and a good way to unwind over the weekend.
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