CJ Horning LASP Internship Week 1

I’m CJ Horning, and I’m interning this summer at LASP (the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics) in Boulder through CU. I’m here with my friend Hugh and we both go to Telluride High School, so it’s been cool to go through this together. This first week was mostly focused on training and getting up to speed with all the equipment we’ll be using throughout the internship. There’s a lot to learn, but everyone’s been super helpful, and we’re getting more comfortable with the setup each day.

A big part of the week was just understanding how the whole system fits together, from the light sources and optical components to the electronics and vacuum systems. We spent time going over safety protocols, vacuum hardware, laser safety, and the basic principles behind UV fiber optics. Even though we’re just getting started, we got to work directly with a few of the components already. We had some hands-on time with a vacuum chamber setup that’s used for testing the transmission of UV light through specialized optical fibers. These fibers are designed to handle short wavelengths, so they need to be handled carefully and aligned with precision.

This is a photo of the microscope we use to check the fiber cleave. The microscope looks at the fiber at about 800x magnification so we get a very good look at it. We do this to confirm it can transfer light.

We also got an overview of the light sources used in the experiment—primarily deuterium lamps, which emit a strong UV spectrum that’s ideal for the kind of fiber testing we’ll be doing. Later in the week, we helped with some alignment work stages to direct the UV light from the lamp into the fiber and then through the monochromator, which isolates specific wavelengths so we can measure transmission at different points across the UV range.

One of the most interesting parts of the training was learning how to work in the cleanroom. We got a crash course in gowning procedures, full coveralls, gloves, booties, hairnets, and face masks, to make sure we don’t bring in any dust or contamination. I am very excited to get to work in the cleanroom in the future. We learned about airflow control, how particles behave in filtered environments, and why cleanliness is so important when you’re dealing with sensitive optics and vacuum systems. It was definitely a new experience, but also kind of exciting to be working in a professional lab.

This is a photo of the deuterium lamp light source and the turbo pump. The turbo pump spins up to 825hz to pump down the vacuum chamber.

It’s been a good mix of learning and doing so far. There’s a lot of terminology and equipment that’s new to us, but it’s starting to make sense. We’ve been asking questions, taking notes, and gradually piecing together how all the parts of the system work together. It feels like we’re building a solid foundation for the next steps of the project, and we’re excited to dive deeper in the coming week.