Things are finally shaping up. The excimer laser is in a quasi stable and working condition (any further repairs and cleaning are beyond the scope of this summer), I have become fairly proficcient at aligning the internal optics of the dye laser and achieving a quite reasonable power despite all the systems flaws.
Next comes the most complicated portion of the experiment, everything else. At this point the whole process changes skills completely from a mechanical tinkering and plumbing fixes to power supplies, circuits, scopes, and computer programs. I'm not yet a labview convert - it looks quite pretty but there is just something intrinsically unnerving about programming without a keyboard (entirely drag and drop)...
Finding the signals and sorting out the timing is an incredible task. Its really testing my ability to use a scope profficiently - I thought I was alright during phys 221 and 331, but this is a whole new level of noise polution and signal hunting.
After arriving to work at 9:30am on 6.5 hours of sleep, I figured 7:30pm on a friday was a good time to leave. Sadly, I still haven't managed to collect a signal yet or even use all the wonderful ozone that I created and have been keeping since earlier this week. In attempt to put down my frustration at lack of actual progress, I look instead at all the parts of the experimental apparatus I can opporate and start up "quickly." It only takes the morning to set up and usually fix the excimer laser, align the dye laser, and create ozone. Not much to show for 4 weeks worth of work, but the word from on high is that this is the hard part, that its all the same set up and just a quick switch of the target in the end.
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