Internship contract for a period of 5 months within the EGO Optics laboratory, funded by the EGO Consortium. Applicants should be in their last years of study in optics or physics. The work will be at a level of Master thesis (equivalent to thesis for “laurea specialistica” in Italian).
Type of contract
Internship contract for a period of 5 months within the EGO Optics laboratory, funded by the EGO Consortium.
Description
The Virgo interferometer is the most sensitive gravitational-wave detector in Europe. It was realized in partnership between the French and Italian institutes CNRS and INFN. It involves a wide collaboration of almost 250 scientists and engineers. After a deep modification of the interferometer, to give birth to a new generation detector called Advanced Virgo (AdV), and after the successful science run together with the LIGO detectors, the instrument is now being commissioned to become fully operative for the second stage of sensitivity improvement.
The EGO consortium (European Gravitational Observatory), located in Cascina, near Pisa – Italy, hosts the Virgo detector. It has also been deeply involved in the design and construction of Advanced Virgo. In particular, the Optics Group of EGO Interferometer Technology Department is in charge of the input optics (INJ) and scattered light control (SLC) system for AdV. The responsibilities of the Optics Group have now increased with the commissioning phase, including the coordination of the whole laser and injection system, the sensing and control of the interferometer and a major role in the optical characterization of the interferometer.
In this frame, the Optics Group would like to develop a portable diagnostic breadboard that would be used in the optics laboratories to characterize any beam on any bench. Such a breadboard would allow us to uniformize the results that are acquired in the laboratories and to save time by avoiding always having to set up cumbersome characterization setup on different benches. For all the experiments that we are carrying out in the laboratories, it is indeed of great interest to perfectly know the characteristics of the beam that is used and its temporal fluctuation. For example, while using crystals for laser and interferometric applications (electro-optic modulator, Faraday isolator, Laser power amplification, second harmonic generation…) or optical fibers, one needs to know the information at the input to maximize the efficiency of the component and at the output to see how the input beam has been deteriorate through the component.
So the idea is to have a portable diagnostic breadboard that could be easily move from a bench to another and provide the needed information. As a first step it would give information on power fluctuation, beam jitter, but also on the mode content of the beam thanks to a mode filtering optical cavity. Depending on the time remaining it could also be improved by adding an arduino-based polarimeter and a wavefront analyzer that would give the characteristics of the Gaussian beam under study.
Within the Optics Group, the student will be in charge to design this breadboard, to set it up and to carry out some tests to validate its functioning. She/he will have the opportunity to work on various aspects of the fields: mainly optics, but also to collaborate with the electronics and mechanics groups at EGO.
Requirements
Applicants should be in their last years of study in optics or physics. The work will be at a level of Master thesis (equivalent to thesis for “laurea specialistica” in Italian).
English required. Good attitude to experimental work is mandatory, knowledge in Python will be an asset.
European citizenship, no criminal convictions.
Place of work
EGO – European Gravitational Observatory – via E. Amaldi n.5 cap 56021 Loc. S.Stefano a Macerata – Cascina (Pisa) ITALY.
This internship will be carried out in the Interferometer Technology Department in the Optics Area.
Considering the lack of public means of transport to reach the site, it is preferable having a car.
How to apply?
Interested candidates are invited to fill in the Internship Application Form and send it, together with the CV, to internships@ego-gw.it
Further information
For the whole duration of the internship, EGO will pay a gross monthly wage of 500,00 euro, the accommodation and the lunch at its canteen during working days.
Closing date for applications
Until position is filled.
Contact
Antonino Chiummo, Ph.D.
Email: antonino.chiummo@ego-gw.it
Phone: +39 050 752 543