Day 1
The day started off with contacting post-docs Chris and Sid about getting a fibre based white light source and a spectrometer. There were some fibre based white light sources in the lab and no-one knew where the USB spectrometer was. I then received an email from the Plasma Group's Laser Safety Advisor on the registration ID of the laser I shall be using for the popomatic. He said he would have an ID number by tomorrow so that I can become a registered laser user. A group meeting at 4:30pm shed some light on the USB spectrometer - I should be able to get my hands on it tomorrow from one of the post-docs and then some lab space would be available for me by then too. Am excited to be doing some work in the lab!
Day 2
Turns out, I didn't get to do any lab work today but tomorrow I will!
First thing today I received the registration ID for the laser I shall be using to build the popomatic so I could complete the laser user registration. I had to do a short self-assessed eye test which required to read some sentences in small font at a distance of 40 cm. I passed the eye test and then filled in the form and submitted it to the Laser Safety Officer of the Physics Department. It was then checked by Professor Smith and now I'm a registered laser user! I then went searching for the USB spectrometer and I am yet to get hold of it. I emailed a few people that owned a spectrometer and I should be able to get my hands on one from a post-doc, Jasmina Music on Thursday. After a quick meeting with Roland I received an email from one of his students and I shall be helping out with some cupboard maintenance tomorrow in one of the laser labs.
Day 3
This morning I got to go into the lab! I was so excited! I had a quick meeting with a postgraduate and she mentioned that I would be able to use her fibre-based spectrometer tomorrow after she finished her experiment. And yes I said she - I got to meet another female researcher which was so nice, she is definitely an inspiration for all females to pursue a career in research. After this I made a trip into the lab and began one of the jobs I was given to do by my supervisor - sorting out some screws that lay abandoned and not in their correct boxes around the lab. I started off with some M6 screws where the M stood for metric and the 6 indicated that the screw width was 6 mm. There were some Imperial screws lying around too that had a slightly thicker thread making it harder to sort the screws!
After lunch, I had a meeting with Roland at 1pm and we were looking at orders for the popomatic! :) I didn't realise how intricate the popomatic was and how expensive optics, mounts and other parts were! Some of the posts and post-holders were not on the list and so my next task was to find out the part numbers for these and check which sizes I needed by referring to the current popomatic. But soon after I was told to do this, the popomatic-creator sent a document with the orders he made which included the part numbers - awesome!
After lunch, I had a meeting with Roland at 1pm and we were looking at orders for the popomatic! :) I didn't realise how intricate the popomatic was and how expensive optics, mounts and other parts were! Some of the posts and post-holders were not on the list and so my next task was to find out the part numbers for these and check which sizes I needed by referring to the current popomatic. But soon after I was told to do this, the popomatic-creator sent a document with the orders he made which included the part numbers - awesome!
I quickly rushed off to my old school for the last session of the academic year and boy did I have some cool experiments in store for them! :) (well, at least I hope they liked it!)
I ran out of time to do all the demos I mentioned in my previous post but nonetheless I managed to do the following demos:
I ran out of time to do all the demos I mentioned in my previous post but nonetheless I managed to do the following demos:
- Polystyrene in acetone demo
where polystyrene dissolves in acetone!
where polystyrene dissolves in acetone!
- Plasma ball
I let the students become givers of light by placing a hand on the plasma ball and then the other hand held a fluorescent light tube which then lit up! the students also saw paper being burnt by a plasma ball by placing some aluminium foil in a spike shape and then a piece of paper between a coin and the aluminium foil. They also got to make a small spark by placing a coin on the plasma ball and their finger very close to the coin.
I let the students become givers of light by placing a hand on the plasma ball and then the other hand held a fluorescent light tube which then lit up! the students also saw paper being burnt by a plasma ball by placing some aluminium foil in a spike shape and then a piece of paper between a coin and the aluminium foil. They also got to make a small spark by placing a coin on the plasma ball and their finger very close to the coin.
- Flame test with a difference
put some salts in a solvent and then into a spray-bottle and spray the salts into a bunsen burner and you should see all the pretty colours of the different salts due to electron transitions
- Safe fire breathing
putting some cornstarch into a tube and then blowing really hard into the tube and pointing it at a flame to get that fire-breathing effect but without the huge dangers!
put some salts in a solvent and then into a spray-bottle and spray the salts into a bunsen burner and you should see all the pretty colours of the different salts due to electron transitions
- Safe fire breathing
putting some cornstarch into a tube and then blowing really hard into the tube and pointing it at a flame to get that fire-breathing effect but without the huge dangers!
 |
| Polystyrene cup and acetone! |
 |
| You can just about see my face in the plasma ball. |
 |
| Producing a small spark with your finger, penny and plasma ball! |
 |
| The concentration on my face is hilarious while I try and prepare the safe fire breathing demo! |
Day 4
After double checking the order numbers with the parts for ordering I got a chance to go into the lab!
I managed to get the spectrometer I needed and tried to set it up. I soon figured out that I needed to install some software from a cute note left by Jasmina Music, a postgraduate student. Before I began installing the software I had the opportunity to view some shots that were being done by some postdocs where x-rays were produced. These were generated by firing a class 4 laser (a laser that could cause a fire!) at a target. I got to see some very cool x-ray cameras that showed the penetration of the x-rays through different filters. Because a class 4 laser was being used, laser goggles in the correct wavelength had to be used when present in the lab - where a shot was fired there was a countdown and we had to cover the sides of our goggles - felt pretty cool to see real science in action! Maybe one day I can follow in their footsteps - just as a short aside, I really hope these blogs show you how cool science can be, it is not a guy subject and that girls can do it too! It was a huge laser system with a myriad of different optics most of which I was not familiar with, but pretty nonetheless. There were amplifiers that could increase the power of the laser by much more than 10 times! The laser system spanned across the lab and provided about a few millijoules of energy - this is amazing for such a small laser system it can give out a terawatt of power (this is one trillion watts!)
After seeing such a cool experiment, I got back to work on some spectroscopy. I mounted the fibre-based white light source onto a post and then got briefed about the fibre-based spectrometer and that I should be careful not to bend the fibre past its limit of curvature. I was also taught how to clean optics using the drag method: place an optic, such as a lens onto a lens cleaning cloth and place another sheet of cloth on top and then drop some methanol or ethanol onto the cloth on top of the optic and then drag the wet cloth away until it's dry.
I then tried to install the software into my laptop and quickly found that it wasn't compatible with my version of Windows. So tomorrow I shall be checking if some of the computers in the lab work and if they will accept the software.
A quick social allowed me to know more about the people in the Plasma Group and again although there was some physics talk (apparently the best physics happens in pubs!) there was lots of physics-unrelated talk again showing me that physicists are normal people!
Day 5
This morning I managed to set up the computer in the lab and then found that the CD drive was missing! So I then tried to find a tower with a working one but there seemed to be a shortage of fully working towers. So after some lunch with the young researchers it was suggested that I download the software onto a USB stick and then use this in the computer in the lab. I then tried this and quickly found that I could install the software. I tried to open the software and it popped up on the screen - result! But I quickly realised that I wasn't getting a spectrograph - this was because I didn't plug in the spectrometer to the mains (woops! Typical mistake!). I then plugged this in and installed the spectrometer to the computer. I tried the software again and this time it didn't work. The program didn't respond - I then tried everything restarting the computer, reinstalling the software.. But nothing worked. I made a quick trip to the lab upstairs and I found that there was a very cool experiment going on - they were firing shots again but this time seeing it as it progressed in time! The laser pulse had a pedestal profile with some strange peaks in and they were testing the pulse profile. The images I saw were absolutely amazing! The plasma-laser interaction almost looked like tadpoles in a pond! They were very cool and it would be the dream to work on something like that in the future!
No comments:
Post a Comment