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Content-type: text/plain
Dear Robert:
I wish to thank you for your Lib graphics and math, and
for your help with the closed loop control project. I started
this project from scratch only 3 months ago. It was the first
time I used your math or graphics packages. This week we achieved
an overwhelming success. We used interferometric techniques
to continuously measure relative positions of two optical flats
illuminated by a laser beam. Every three seconds we collected
camera images from a 640*480 gray-scale RS-170 camera connected
to a National Instruments frame grabber board NI-1407. The images
were acquired by a BlackBox program directly from the frame grabber,
and analyzed using the Spatially Separated Phase Detection (SSPD)
implemented in BlackBox with calls to your matrix and vector library.
With this unassuming equipment we measured the relative alignment
of optical flats to an astounding accuracy of about 2 nanometers,
what corresponds to about 20* the size of an atom (see
http://www.bu.edu/core/cc105/lectures/L12-Atoms/howbig.html ).
We then closed the active control loop with the PicoMotors available
from New Focus (www.newfocus.com) to continuosly adjust positions
of optical flats, in order to keep them aligned to within one
picomotor step of about 15 nanometers. The commands to drive the
picomotors were derived from the SSPD analysis and sent to the
picomotor control hardware by BlackBox. We thus achieved a complete
closed loop control entirely within the BlackBox package. The results
of this pilot experiment will help develop temporal compression
of laser pulses in order to decrease the duration of such pulses
by about a factor of a thousand.
It is worth reflecting on the software development process.
Over the course of about three months I was able to continuosly add
new features to the BlackBox software package under development,
while keeping the package operational all the time. There was not
a single day when the package would not be in full working order,
within the scope of those features that had been implemented up to
a given date. The corollary of this development came yesterday,
when I flipped the boolean switch to engage the motors,
and went home. Upon my arrival the next day the control system
was happily working, and the overnight history plots showed how
the picomotors kept the optics in good alignment all the time.
It is most remarkable that the software of such complexity worked
right out of the box, on the day the development had been completed.
This development mode, by continuosly refining the software of
considerable complexity without breaking it in the process,
is only possible due to the modular architecture, as well as
strong security features of both the development system and the
underlying language.
I do appreciate many discussions and comments that we exchanged
during this project. I would not have achieved this much, and so fast,
without your help. I feel indebted for both, your magnificent software
library and for helping me making good use of it. This success would
not have been possible without the rock-solid foundation provided by
the BlackBox development environment.
Thank you again,
Wojtek
PS: for those interested in seeing the software, please drop me an
e-mail and I will send you a copy.
--------------------------------------------
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Received on Fri May 14 2004 - 04:14:31 UTC