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Thread: DIY Laser microscopes

  1. #1
    zetoscience
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    Confused DIY Laser microscopes

    Hi, everyone!
    Could anybody be so kind as to help me, plase?! I'm kind of desperate.
    I have to make my own microscope with green laser light. I've watched a hundred videos on youtube that show how those microscopes work, but any of them tell me what's the science of those.
    Does the wavelength matter? Can I use red laser light in order to achieve the same results? Is it just simple optics?
    Thanks in advance.
    Last edited by zetoscience; 01-28-2014 at 03:53 PM. Reason: Mistake

  2. #2
    Technical Fellow Kelly_Bramble's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by zetoscience View Post
    Does the wavelength matter? Can I use red laser light in order to achieve the same results? Is it just simple optics?

    Good question, I wonder if the green chlorophyll pigment involved in photosynthesis has something to do with the selection of a green laser.

    How to make a green laser microscope Video
    Last edited by Kelly_Bramble; 01-30-2014 at 07:33 AM.

  3. #3
    Associate Engineer
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    Quote Originally Posted by zetoscience View Post
    Hi, everyone!
    Could anybody be so kind as to help me, plase?! I'm kind of desperate.
    I have to make my own microscope with green laser light. I've watched a hundred videos on youtube that show how those microscopes work, but any of them tell me what's the science of those.
    Does the wavelength matter? Can I use red laser light in order to achieve the same results? Is it just simple optics?
    Thanks in advance.
    What I believe you are referring to is an interferometer. A green wavelength will cover a wavelength range of 0.490 to 0.574 micrometers or 19.3-22.6 microinches. Now this wavelength will correspond with a type of gas that will meet that frequency. For green we are looking at Argon ion laser, but I'm assuming you don't have to build the laser. It doesn't really matter what color you use, but that you are able to isolate a single-wavelength of light as you can with prisms and such. The simplest type you should be able to build with little time would be a Michelson-type interferometer. In this set-up you pass the laser beam through a beam splitter, which then directs 50% of the the light to each of two mirrors or cube-corner reflectors. The beam reflects back to the splitter, and a portion of each again passes through to an aperture and photodetector. At the detector, the beams act constructively produces bright lines, or destructively producing dark lines.The interference is dependent upon the difference in the number of wavelengths between the 2 paths. The number of dark fringes is equal to the number of wavelengths, N, where 2(distance traveled)= N (Wavelength). There are many images on google regarding this set-up. Good-luck.

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