Undergraduate Research at Jefferson Lab

Developing a Laser-Based Survey System to Measure the Target Position in Hall C

Student: Alyssa Petroski

School: University of the Sciences in Philadelphia

Mentored By: Mentors: Holly Szumila-Vance; Cynthia Keppel

The continuous electron beam at Jefferson Lab can be used to study the internal structure of nuclei by studying reactions of the beam with nuclear targets. In Hall C, the target ladder is known to move when pulling vacuum and cooling, but the displacement of the target due to this process is a significant source of uncertainty for both the spectrometer optics and experimental physics results. An optoNCDT laser can be used to measure this displacement. The resolution, linearity, and stability of this laser were studied to determine the repeatability and reliability for measuring target displacements in Hall C.