Day 9

This morning I showed Ashley the code I was working on for the Gaussian functions, as she and Peter are going to be working with MATLAB too (Pete was unfortunately out today). I found that showing someone what I had done and explaining each step really helped me to properly understand the code, so it was just as helpful to me. I read about the Knife-Edge experiment, which can be used to model a 2-D Gaussian curve from the beam of light, it works as an error function. The Knife-Edge test is done by blocking the beam of light with the flat side of a razor or knife blade, then slowly moving the blade to the side to let the light through to the detector. The power is measured as a function of position and, through the use of a standard error function, is converted into a Gaussian curve.

The power function:

The error function:

Today we also set up a meeting (over phone) with a representative from ALIO Industries who helped us to set up our new stages with the help of screen sharing technology. This helped to clear up some issues we were having trouble with yesterday and everything appears to be running smoothly now. The power meter which Dmitry had ordered from ThorLabs cames today (as did some LabSnacks!). So over the next few days, while Dmitry is out, I will be working out a way to connect the software from the power meter and control it remotely through MATLAB. If I can work that out, I will also work on a way to control the ALIO stages by way of MATLAB. It will be much easier to calibrate things and run the tests cleanly if we are controlling both from the same place.