Category: equipment
First Neon Film in prototype Single Atom Microscope
The prototype Single Atom Microscope has been assembled and has passed two critical test. The substrate upon which we grow the solid neon thin films can be cooled to around 7 K which is cold enough to grow neon films. We have grown neon films at a rate of roughly 1 micron per ...
Producing Scientific Diagrams Which Reveal the Relevant Scale @EdwardTufte
Learning how to produce informative and detailed graphical representations of the equipment used for experiments is a critical skill that takes practice and requires detailed knowledge of what is truly important about each component of the apparatus. For the Single Atom Microscope (SAM) project, we designed and assembled a prototype gas handling system (GHS) which ...
Surprise, Surprise!
We use several compressed gas bottles in Spinlab. Each of these bottles is secured to a wall when in use and transported on a tiltable cart with four wheels. Of course, when the bottles are being transported, we make sure that the gas bottle cap is securely screwed onto the top, because we don’t want ...
Magnetic Field Map of Spinlab
This week I completed the Spinlab Magnetic Field Mapping Report, a 31-page LaTeX document outlining the motivation for mapping the magnetic field of the Spinlab, the process for building the components necessary for completing the mapping, and results from various mappings from 2016. This document will be very important for completing any future B-field mappings, especially once I ...
Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey
The lab was confronted with a stuck knob on one of our Helium gas regulators. Many of the other lab members attempted to open the outlet valve to the regulator but that proved unsuccessful. I attempted to open the stuck valve as well, even using the strap wrench as shown. I had the thought that ...
Python Code to Control Four Relays
The “Weekly Win” for the week of Nov. 7th was awarded to Liam Clink for completing the code which will be used for the degaussing project in the RaEDM study. “This past week I finished getting the code for the degaussing project functional. This code will be used in a Raspberry Pi to control relays and ...
Digital Green LED Clocks
sample of one of the clocks in the lab During the week of Oct. 24th, some small but vital improvements were made to lab. As most scientific experiments often do, many of the projects occuring at Spinlab require precise time keeping. It has been a long-haul battle getting the required clocks to function at optimum ...
Radio Shack
The Spinlab’s unique inventory of world-class equipment and facilities paired with it’s innovative team members allows for the execution of intricate and critical experiments. Improvements, additions, and customizations are constantly being made around the lab. An example of this is the weekly win awarded on 10/17/16 to Roy Ready for his work in building a ...
Debugging An Obscure Non-Fatal Failure Mode for a TMP 50 Turbopump
While testing the new TMP 50 (S/N31001349549) on the HV setup, it failed three times. All three times, the TMP was started at a pressure of 4E-3 Torr or below and failed about 4 minutes into the acceleration at pressures of 6E-5 Torr or below. Before the last attempt, we ran the roughing pump with the gas ballast valve ...
The Great Laser Installation of 2016
The Spinlab tunable lasers from M-squared were installed this week. The GRUVY laser provides tunable single frequency laser light from 250-300 nm, 500-600 nm, and 700-1000 nm. The BLUREI laser provides tunable single frequency laser light from 350-500 nm and 700-1000 nm. Thanks Steven and Daniel!
SPINLAB @ MSU 
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