Science.lab

This system will hold a tiny drop of liquid for very long periods of time and allow it to be studied in great detail. In this instance the conditions inside a chamber closely replicate the inside of the lung in terms of temperature and humidity. Other lasers can then be fired into the drop revealing detailed information about its structure.

Despite the immensely high tech system surrounding this experiment, its always nice to see an old CRT tube with an X drawn on with a sharpie to help see when the drop is captured!

There’s an explanation of the video on this post by Dr Mike Towrie. The crystals used to generate the laser light have some amazing properties.

“This shows the generation of light in a beta barium borate (BBO) crystal. It takes the picosecond light from a titanium sapphire amplifier in the near infrared, then doubles it to 400 nm in a BBO crystal then it takes this 400 nm light and focuses it into another BBO crystal. The 400 nm (pump) light is converted to different wavelengths dependent on the angle of the crystal.  The movie shows the changes in colour.

A laser burning a piece of paper. This is the Astra Gemini laser (specifically the Astra stage). The flashing you can see is pulses of laser light - the laser itself is around 1cm in diameter at this stage. You can hear a snap as the laser instantly burns a mark on the paper. When you’re there it sounds pretty loud. The firing end of the Gemini laser - further down the chain i’m told sounds more like a gunshot if you put a piece of paper in it, at that stage its much more powerful. I’m hoping to be able to experience that at some point.

An image from my first visit to the Central Laser Facility, The green laser you can see is passing through a titanium doped sapphire which in turn creates an infra red laser. This is one stage of the boosting process to create a very powerful laser (Astra Gemini). 

http://www.stfc.ac.uk/CLF/Facilities/Astra/12254.aspx

I’ve just begun an art residency with Artquest, Arts Catalyst and the Central Laser Facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire. I’ll be blogging about my experiences there here.

Arts Catalyst Website