The design and operation of a homemade low cost vibrating sample magnetometer is described here. The sensitivity of this instrument is better than 10-2 emu and found to be very efficient for the measurement of magnetization of most of the ferromagnetic and other magnetic materials as a function of temperature down to 77 K and magnetic field upto 800 Oe. Both M(H) and M(T) data acquisition are fully automated employing computer and Labview software
The characterization of detectors fabricated from home-grown crystals is the most direct way to study crystal properties. We fabricated planar detectors from high-purity germanium (HPGe) crystals grown at the University of South Dakota (USD). In the fabrication process, a HPGe crystal slice cut from a USD-grown crystal was coated with a high resistivity thin film of amorphous Ge (a-Ge) followed by depositing a thin layer of aluminum on top of the a-Ge film to define the physical area of the contacts. We investigated the detector performance including the $I$-$V$ characteristics, $C$-$V$ characteristics and spectroscopy measurements for a few detectors. The results document the good quality of the USD-grown crystals and electrical contacts.
In this paper, a compact and low-cost structured illumination microscope (SIM) based on a 2X2 fiber coupler is presented. Fringe illumination is achieved by placing two output fiber tips at a conjugate Fourier plane of the sample plane as the point sources. Raw structured illumination (SI) images in different pattern orientations are captured when rotating the fiber mount. Following this, high resolution images are reconstructed from no-phase-shift raw SI images by using a joint Richardson-Lucy (jRL) deconvolution algorithm. Compared with an SLM-based SIM system, our method provides a much shorter illumination path, high power efficiency, and low cost.
Noise measurements have been carried out in the LISA bandwidth (0.1 mHz to 100 mHz) to characterize an all-optical atomic magnetometer based on nonlinear magneto-optical rotation. This was done in order to assess if the technology can be used for space missions with demanding low-frequency requirements like the LISA concept. Magnetometry for low-frequency applications is usually limited by $1/f$ noise and thermal drifts, which become the dominant contributions at sub-millihertz frequencies. Magnetic field measurements with atomic magnetometers are not immune to low-frequency fluctuations and significant excess noise may arise due to external elements, such as temperature fluctuations or intrinsic noise in the electronics. In addition, low-frequency drifts in the applied magnetic field have been identified in order to distinguish their noise contribution from that of the sensor. We have found the technology suitable for LISA in terms of sensitivity, although further work must be done to characterize the low-frequency noise in a miniaturized setup suitable for space missions.
We demonstrate an optically pumped $^{87}$Rb magnetometer in a microfabricated vapor cell based on a zero-field dispersive resonance generated by optical modulation of the $^{87}$Rb ground state energy levels. The magnetometer is operated in the spin-exchange relaxation-free regime where high magnetic field sensitivities can be achieved. This device can be useful in applications requiring array-based magnetometers where radio frequency magnetic fields can induce cross-talk among adjacent sensors or affect the source of the magnetic field being measured.
An active device for radon detection in the air was developed. The monitor operates in pulse counting mode for real-time continuous measurements. The presented prototype has a relatively simple design made of low-price and easy to acquire components which made it possible to develop an inexpensive device. The device used as a sensor, the SLCD-61N5 Si-PIN planar photodiode, which has an area of 9.67x9.67 mm2, is sensitive to alpha particles. An Arduino Uno microcontroller was used as a data acquisition system. Signals were observed when placing an 241Am or 226Ra source near the sensor. The sensors sensitivity has small bias dependency and the device can operate even at modest voltage. As a result of a one-month test in a radon-rich atmosphere, a positive high correlation (Pearsons r equal to 0.977) was obtained between our prototype and a Geiger-Muller detector.