YAG Laser Donation to Our New Optics Lab

This past spring the physics department gathered with several alumni for dinner. The occasion was the opening of the Rines Laboratory for Optics. The invitees were all alumni actively employed in the field of electro-optics, and they had returned to see the fruition of more than a year of planning, designing and building. Nearly a year earlier, the group had gathered to discuss the detailed infrastructure and equipment needs for a start-of-the-art optics lab to be built in the new Physics and Math wing of the Ken Olsen Science Center. With construction complete and the occupancy certificate issued, we gathered again to give thanks and for a celebration. The picture is of the Rines clan standing in the lab.

Shortly after that dinner, alumni Bill and Donna Thorburn donated funding for a Spectra-Physics pulsed Nd:YAG laser. The laser and the new lab will allow our students to delve deeply into advanced spectroscopic techniques. One of Dr. Lee's former students, now in his third year as a graduate student in Physics at Harvard University, has received an NSF Graduate Fellowship with a specific aim to support undergraduate optics research here at Gordon College. He comes up twice a semester to spend the day working with senior Danielle Duggins on her research project.

Danielle's research project is to build a Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) setup using the YAG laser and one of our new Horiba MicroHR spectrometers.

LIBS is a technique whereby the laser pulse vaporizes the top few layers of a sample and form a plasma from the ablated atoms. This plasma consists of highly energized atoms which emits unique signatures of light as they relax down to lower energy levels. An analysis of the frequencies of light collected by the spectrometer allows for identification of the elemental makeup of the sample. LIBS has a wide range of applications, including analysis of forgeries in the art world to detection of heavy metal contamination in soils and analysis of forensic samples from crime scenes. We will use it to determine, among other things, the atomic composition of metal alloy samples made in the arc melter in our materials lab.

Danielle spent last summer in the optics lab putting many safety features in place in anticipation of using the YAG laser. This fall she began on her research project in earnest, replacing several parts on the laser and aligning the spectrometer. Danielle will soon be blasting away at samples to determine chemical compositions!

For more information about either our physics major or our 3-2 engineering program, please contact us at: [email protected] or [email protected]

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