The 'guts: a 555 timer chip, output current amplified through a transistor, driving an automobile ignition coil for high voltage to the flashlamp.
<555 + transistor schematic>
Controls and auxilliaries:
<whole circuit drawing>
2. Optical System
-Flashlamp- Xenon flashlamp ILC model 4f4. 7.563 inches in length, 6 mm OD. Never touch the flashlamp with bare hands - hot spots can form
around the grease left by fingerprints and shatter the lamp when
in use. Cost (late 1995): $185.
-Dye Tube- Fused quartz tubing, 6mm OD x 4mm ID (1mm wall). Wale Apparatus Co. Inc.,Hellertown, PA.
-Windows- (For the ends of the dye cell) Two required. Fused quartz, optically flat, ground and polished parallel. Esco Products, Oak Ridge, NJ. 1" square x 1/16" thick.
-Grating- Edmund Scientific, Barrington, NJ. Holographic grating with 1800 lines per mm., 12.7mm x 12.7 mm.
3. Hardware
A. Dye Circulation System A 4 inch length of the quartz tubing was epoxied to
1/4" copper " T " fittings on each end. We cut one end off the " T " fitting and
epoxied the windows (optical flats) on the truncated end of the "T". TUBING!!
DYE RESERVOIRS!!
B. Elliptical Mirror An elliptical mirror was made to couple the light of the flashlamp directly into the dye tube. We used a copper pipe (aluminum will also do), pressed into an elliptical shape using a vise. The inner surface was polished until mirror- like. (A Dremel buffing tool was very helpful for this.) In order to accomplish the desired reflection, the flashlamp and dye tube must be placed at the foci of the ellipse. The geometry of the elliptical reflector is discussed in Appendix
B.
C. Mirrors The adjustable mirror mounts for the front 80% mirror consist of two "L" shaped plates, attached back to back by three screws. These screws also contain the adjustable mirror, separated from the plates by three spacers soldered to the plates. (see Mirror Mount Diagram on the back of this page!) By adjusting these screws the mirror can be finely tuned to reflect where needed. The easiest way to align the mirror and the diffraction grating is by using a helium neon laser. To do this the mirror and grating must first be removed, and the HeNe laser sighted so the beam travels as the aligned laser should. The diffraction grating is then replaced and a 4" by 4" sheet of metal, with a 1/16" hole in the center, is placed before the HeNe laser. With the grating improperly aligned a spot will appear on the back of the metal sheet The grating can then be adjusted until the reflected beam is centered on the 1/16" hole. The weaker mirror is then replaced and adjusted so that no spots appear on the metal sheet.