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  Nuclear hyperfine mixing in 229Th89+ 2025, Page 3 of 4  Not logged in ELOG logo
ID Date Author Category Subject
  28   Fri Jun 20 06:37:51 2025 KonstantinAcceleratorPosition of contaminants
I checked the positions of the contaminants. Therefore, I drove the scrapers and observed the signal at the Schottky detector

While the vertical positions are identical for all scrapers, the horizontal positions deviate due to the dispersion in the cooler section

Scraper -83.75kHz -26.875 0 61kHz 83.25 110.625
GECEDS1VU -0.5 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5
GECEDS1HA (from 75mm) -4 -5 -5.2 -6.6 -6.9 -7.2
GECEDS1HA (from -75mm) -11.8 -12.8 -13.3 -14.5 -15.1 -15.7
GECEDS2VU 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9
  27   Wed Jun 18 20:24:01 2025 Carsten, Shahab, Ragandeep, Danyal et al. (the dayshift) and ESR crewAccelerator229Th89+ identification
We believe to have identified the 237U92+ and the 229Th89+ peaks. 

Using the Schottky resonator at about 244 MHz and taking the 123rd harmonic: 
The Schottky peak of 237U92+ should be at 242.7975 MHz and the one of 229Th89+ at 242.8494 MHz. 
The peaks should be ~52 kHz apart.

We have used:  
gamma_t	= 2.355 
alpha_p = 0.18 
  26   Wed Jun 18 19:05:28 2025 Carlo, Zac, Shahab, RaganAnalysisPID with rionid
For PID with rionid we used: 
- LISE file from last year (attached.
- .npz file from 410 RSA (attached).
  25   Wed Jun 18 14:01:40 2025 Julien, Konstantin, Stefan, Rima Ion bunch on PMTs
Apparentlty did not work yesterday evening (no signal), but looks fine now (see attachment)
  24   Wed Jun 18 11:44:15 2025 Julien, Konstantin, Stefan, Rima Jitter CFD
Pulses on photodiodes in entry 20 

1. seem wide, so we also looked at qswitch signal; also seemes wide.
2. Have a tail

1.:

We investigated this and came to the conclusion, that the CFD is the issue:
- On an oscilloscope, when looking at both HF signal (CFD input) and CFD output, there is a 2ns jitter.
- The same jitter is visible when looking at the CFD output when triggering on a freq. generator signal with same frequency and amplitude as HF signal (1.54263 MHz; 1V peak to peak).
- There is not significant jitter when comparing the CFD output and the qswitch signal

We tried differents CFD (also a leading edge CFD / different thresholds), but this did not significantly improve what we saw on the oscilloscope.
Applying a 10MHz filter to the HF signal only made the jitter worse.
There might be an option to get a logic (NIM) signal from ESR instead of the sin-signal
Alternatively, one could think about using a PLL.
Note: the 2ns might also be limited by the trigger of the oscilloscope. We saw that if the trigger of the oscilloscope is not on the steepest part of the HF signal, the jitter "gets worse".

2.:

We saw on the qswtich signal, that there are instances, when  the q-switch signal is too early; 
Ww will try to find out which NIM module between the CFD and the final qswitch signal causes this
Preliminary: It's coincidance crate
  23   Wed Jun 18 08:07:17 2025 Julien, KonstantinLasernew FCU Calibration
UV power was not stable but dropping from ~18 mW to 13 mW after opening COBRA shutters.
New calibration of frequency conversion unit:

Wavelength/nm       Position/Steps
554,0001            383029
553,0000            386604
552,0001            390229
551,0000            393954
550,0001            397679
549,0001            401404
548,0001            405104
547,0001            408829

now stable at ~19-20 mJ depending on wavelength

Table of dataset: Attachement 1
Plot of dataset: Attachement 2
  22   Wed Jun 18 07:59:00 2025 Julien, KonstantinLaserPhase-offset
We recognized that the output power of the pump laser was instable when externally triggered with 200kHz (stand-bye frequency of ESR). Therefore, we changed the coarse timing offset of the pockels cell trigger compared to the flash lamp pulse from 215µs to 219.9µs. 
Thereby, the output power increased from ~600mJ to 620mJ, and the PTP stability improved from 15% to 10%. The RMS stability improved from 2% to 1.2 %. With these settings we had UV pulse energies of 20mJ.
  21   Wed Jun 18 03:12:25 2025 RodolfoLaserBeam Stabilization
The laser beam pointing has changed, even thought the MRC settings are the same as given in Entry 5 (this elog). This could be caused by a droping of the laser output energy which is now 13,8 mJ @275 nm
  20   Wed Jun 18 01:58:02 2025 Esther, Alexis, Anton, Rodolfo, CarstenAcceleratorNo Bunched Beam
The Bunching is not set properly. We do not see the ion bunch with the Photomultiplier.
  19   Wed Jun 18 00:56:28 2025 Carsten, Rodolfo, Anton, Alexis, Esther beam overlap with t-scrapers
When testing the overlap between laser and ion beam we observed the following positions:

motorion beam position (mm) from outsideion beam position (mm) from inside
GECEDS1VU 0 6.5
GECEDS1HA -22.5 -13.5
GECEDS2VU 1 8.5
GECEDS2HA -20.5 -10


Note: To move GECEDS1VU the corresponding horizontal drive (GECEDS1HA) has to be at 2 mm.
  18   Wed Jun 18 00:33:56 2025 Esther, Alexis, Anton, Rodolfo, CarstenDAQR4l-41
We have some issues with the RIO computer R4l-41 (DAQ1). We had to switch off completely twice. Only then it reacted properly. Maybe a problem with the network at about 00:00 o'clock?
  17   Tue Jun 17 19:25:30 2025 RodolfoAcceleratorT-Scrapers in E-Cooler
Here are the instructions to drive the T-Scrapers inside the ESR Electron Cooler

  • ECEDS1VU: Verriegelt mit ECEDS1HA. Der Antrieb kann nur fahren
    wenn der Antrieb ECEDS1HA in Position -4,0 steht.

  • ECEDS1HA: Verriegelt mit ECEDS1VU. Der Antrieb kann nur fahren
    wenn der Antrieb ECEDS1VU in Stellung EI steht.

  • ECEDS2VU: Verriegelt mit ECEDS2HA. Der Antrieb kann nur fahren
    wenn der Antrieb ECEDS2HA in Position 0,0 steht.

  • ECEDS2HA: Verriegelt mit ECEDS2VU. Der Antrieb kann nur fahren
    wenn der Antrieb ECEDS2VU in Stellung EI steht.

According to Boywitt/Schuhmacher, BEA-MEI. Date: 28.07.2021
  16   Tue Jun 17 16:33:16 2025 Carsten, SimonDAQGate Q-swtich
The gate generator of the Q-switch signal for the Vuprom TDC was set to 10ms.
  15   Tue Jun 17 09:32:00 2025 KonstantinDAQMeda data acquisition
The metadata provided by Medusa (Labview channels in former times) are now labelled correctly in Go4. 
Most important data are "Cobra Set WL", "WS7 Meas WL", "PTB U scal", "Ohmlabs U scal", which correspond to the set wavelength, measured wavelength, voltage measured at the PTB divider, and voltage measured at the Ohmlabs divider.
Other channels are mostly for debugging purposes.
  14   Mon Jun 16 22:27:01 2025 Carsten, SimonDAQThresholds
We also adjusted the thresholds for the mesytic.
Doing that, we noticed that one of the trafos is broken (5th row, middle).

PMT channel Threshold
South 5 35
Middle 6 16
North 7 16
  13   Mon Jun 16 21:47:23 2025 Carsten, Wilfried, Simon DetectorsNew threshold values for PMTs
We adjusted the thresholds for the PMTs and increased the voltage of PMT middle to 2.7kV

PMT Model Operation Voltage Threshold (mV)
South ET9422B Broadband -1750 V 30
Middle ET9423B Smallband -2700 V 18
North ET9423B Smallband -2650 V 10
  12   Mon Jun 16 07:26:01 2025 KonstantinDAQStartup of Medusa and DAQ1
The laser control software (Medusa) is hosted on the Windows PC ATPPC023. First connect via the command

atplaser@lxg1297:~$ xfreerdp /w:2500 /h:1400 /u:atplaser /v:atppc023.campus.gsi.de

You will be asked for the usual "atplaser" password. Please be aware that you're typing on an english keyboard!
Medusa is simply started by the link on the Desktop called "Medusa Laser Control". After startup you will see the main window (Attachment 1).
Please make also sure that the Wavelength meter software is running!!! Otherwise, wavelengths cannot be logged
In the main window different actions can be made (see also Attachment 2):


  1. Open additional views, options are "Display" (figure of recent values), "MBS Messenger" (connection status with MBS, lower part of Attachment 2), "Devices View" (most recent values of different devices, right part of Attachment 2)
  2. Make sure that "Make Data Available to MBS" is selected
  3. Definition of laser scan Parameters. The laser will perform an automated scan between the selected wavelengths. It's possible to define an increment or a number of laser steps as scan parameter. After the laser has received the specified number of rising edges on Trigger port #1 (Do not change the port number, since this corresponds to the Hardware setting!) the laser advances to the next frequency until the number of steps and scan repetitions is completed. There is an option to start the laser scan automatically, when a trigger was received on port #3 (The cabling is done. However, the pulse generation must be provided from SCU sddsc221 channel IO1 of timing receiver tr1 whenever needed).
  4. The button can be used to start and stop a scan. In some cases there might occur an USB communication error with the laser, which can also be reset by this button.
  5. IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure that the FCU is enabled, since otherwise the BBO of the FCU does not follow the wavelength of the laser, which results in NO UV output power.
  6. After "Make Data Available to MBS" option (see 2.) has been selected, Medusa is awaiting the MBS client to connect.
  7. View of most recent parameter settings.

The complete startup routine to perform a laser scan is the following:


  1. Start medusa as described above
  2. Connect to "r4l-41":
    atplaser@lxg1297:~$ ssh atplaser@r4l-41
  3. Change to the directory of the Th-MBS version:
    R4L-41 > cd mbsrun/E0052/DAQ1
  4. Make a reset (optional):
    R4L-41 > resl
  5. Start mbs:
    R4L-41 > mbs
  6. Once you are in the mbs environment start the acquisition:
    mbs > @startup
  7. Connect to the file server:
    mbs > @connectdisk
  8. Start acquisition:
    mbs > sta ac
    With this command, the connection to the Medusa server should be established. This can be verified by the line
    -R4L-41 :read_meb :connected succesfully to LabView Server.
    of the MBS output, and in the MBS Messenger View of Medusa stating
    Connected! Established connection to ...

  9. Open file:
    mbs > @openfile
  10. Press Run-button in the Go4 analysis (must be started beforehand)
  11. Start laser scan in medusa
  12. Press Stop-button in the Go4 analysis
  13. Close file:
    mbs > @closefile

As long as nothing crashes (keep fingers crossed), only steps 9-13 need to be repeated for subsequent scans.
  11   Fri Jun 13 18:14:02 2025 Konstantin, CarstenDAQDAQ Folder
Dryrun of DAQs. Folders of the data are:


DAQ1 file DAQ2 file scan range laser steps comment
/data.local2/2025_229Th/2025_229ThDAQ1_0090.lmd /mnt/raw.data/229Th2025/Th25DAQ2_0106.lmd - */Th25DAQ2_0107.lmd 550.4 - 549.6 201
91 108 - 111 550.4 - 549.6 201
92 112 550.4 - 549.6 201 Changed step logic of Medusa back to previous version before the start of this run
93 113 550.4 - 549.6 201
94 114 550.4 - 549.6 201
95 115 - 116 550.4 - 549.6 201
96 117 550.4 - 549.6 201


Data were recorded with a synthesized RF of 1.5MHz
  10   Thu Jun 12 16:27:45 2025 CarstenDAQNTCAP directory
On the NTCAP the directory is changed to 
Q:/E0052
  9   Thu Jun 12 15:53:13 2025 CarstenDAQdata directory and backup disk (WDBook2 RAID)
The data of DAQ1 are stored in the following directory and with the following filenames

open file /data.local2/2025_229Th/2025_229ThDAQ1_ -auto -rfio 
(from @openfile)

The usual @connectdisk, @openfile @closefile are adapted and can be used.

The WDBook RAID0 disk is attached for backup of the data

/media/atplaser/WDBook2/2025E0052daq1
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