PhysicsOpenLab Modern DIY Physics Laboratory for Science Enthusiasts
It is not true that to make high-level educational scientific experiments it is necessary to spend a lot of money to buy the necessary equipment. Often with a bit of good will, time and lot of patience you can build everything you need : you save, you learn and you have fun !
Here below there is a list of the main equipment.
Light
- Diffraction grating spectrometer
- Fluorometer
- Photometer
- Photon counter
- TEA nitrogen laser
- Michelson-Morley Interferometer
- Mach-Zender Interferometer
Electronics
- High voltage generator
- Ultra high voltage generator
- PMT supply driver
- PMT front-end
- SiPM (silicon photomultiplier) supply driver
- SiPM front-end
- Fast pulser
- Pulse counter
- Charge sensitive amplifier (CSP)
- Micod CSP
- Trans-impedance amplifier (TIA)
- Cypress PSoC projects
- Lock-in amplifier device
- Raspberry Pi Data logger
- Biosignals amplifier
Nuclear Physics
- Geiger counter
- Ion chamber
- Proportional detector
- Neutron detector
- Gamma spectrometer
- Alpha spectrometer
- Geiger tube – cosmic rays telescope
- Plastic scintillator – cosmic rays telescope
- Muons detector
- Coincidence detector
- Cherenkov detector
- Webcam nuclear particle detector
- Cloud chamber
X-ray
General Physics
- Photoelectric effect equipment
- Franck-Hertz experiment equipment
- Ramsauer-Townsend effect equipment
- Quantized conductance equipment
Others
- Pendulum seismometer
- Geophone seismometer
- Fluxgate magnetometer
- Hall-effect magnetometer
- Microwave generator
- Microwave doppler sensor
- VLF radio SID detector
- Meteor radio-echo detector
- Horn antenna and receiver for 21cm HI emission
- Parabolic dish and receiver for 10GHz radio emission
- Johnson noise & shot noise equipment
Light Spectrometer
Post with the description of the Equipment : DIY Diffraction grating Spectrometer
Fluorometer
Post with the description of the Equipment : DIY Fluorometer for DNA Concentration
Photoelectric Effect Equipment
Post with the description of the Equipment : Study of Photoelectric Effect
Ramsauer-Townsend Effect Equipment
Post with the description of the Equipment : Ramsauer-Townsend Effect
Johnson Noise & Shot Noise Equipment
Post with the Johnson Noise Equipment : Johnson Noise, Boltzmann Constant and Brownian Motion
Post with the Shot Noise Equipment : Shot Noise and Electron Charge
Photon Counter
Post with the Photon Counting Equipment : Light as a Particle, Photon Counting
Microwave Generator
Post with the Microwave Equipment : Gunnplexer and Microwaves
Microwave Doppler Sensor
Post with the Microwave Doppler Sensor Equipment : Microwave Doppler Sensor
Geiger Detector
Post with the Geiger Detector Equipment : Gamma Radioactivity, Beta Radioactivity, Alpha Radioactivity
Ion Chamber
Post with the Ion Chamber Equipment : Radon (ENG), Radioactive Decay Time Measurement
X-Ray Proportional Counter
Post with the Proportional Detector Equipment : X Ray Proportional Counter
Neutron Detector
Post with the Neutron Detector Equipment : DIY Neutron Detector
Gamma Spectrometer
Post with the Gamma Spectrometer Equipment : DIY Gamma Spectrometry
Alpha Spectrometer
Post with the Alpha Spectrometer Equipment : DIY Alpha Spectrometer, Some Alpha Spectra
Cosmic Rays Telescope
Post with the Cosmic Rays Telescope Equipment : Cosmic Rays and coincidence Detector
Muons Detector
Post with the Muons Detector Equipment : Scintillation Detector for Cosmic Muons, Muon Lifetime Measurement with PSoC
Coincidence Detector
Post with the Coincidence Detector Equipment : PSoC Coincidence Detector – I
Cherenkov Detector
Post with the Cherenkov Detector Equipment : DIY Water Cherenkov Detector, DIY Acrylic Cherenkov Detector
XRF Spectrometer
Post with the XRF Spectrometer Equipment : DIY XRF Spectrometry
Webcam Nuclear Particle Detector
Source = Strontium (90Sr) 0,1μCi
CPS (counts per seconds) = 1,38
Trace Length = 33px * 6μm = 198 μm
The CMOS sensor detects the beta radiation emitted by the decay of strontium. In the picture aside you see the magnified image of the track of an electron.
Post with the Webcam Particle Detector Equipment : DIY Webcam Particle Detector
Charge Sensitive Preamplifier (CSP)
The charge sensitive preamplifier (CSP) is a circuit in which the current pulse generated by a detector is converted into a voltage pulse by means of the charge of a capacitor. In the image below it is presented our “low cost” CSP.
The charts below show the signal from the detector (blue) and the signal produced by the CSP (yellow).
Post with the CSP Equipment : X Ray Spectroscopy with PIN Photodiode
Trans – Impedence Amplifier (TIA)
The trans – impedence amplifier (TIA) is a circuit in which the current pulse generated by a detector is converted and amplified into a voltage pulse by means of the voltage generated in a resistor. In the image aside there is our TIA used for the SiPM detectors.
The chart below show the signal from the detector (blue) and the signal amplified by the TI (yellow).
Post with the TIA Equipment : Muon Lifetime Measurement with PSoC , DIY Water Cherenkov Detector
X-Ray Diffractometer (refurbished Teltron apparatus)
Post with the Teltron Diffractometer Equipment : Tel-X-Ometer Equipment , Bragg Diffraction , XRD Analysis of some Minerals
X-Ray Generator
A simple, DIY and low-cost X-Ray generator could be very useful ! The images below show the apparatus we have built with a russian NOS X-Ray tube. We built also a cabinet with a HV section and with the ammeter to measure the anodic current. The filament is fed with a constant-current power supply. Important ! The tube must be covered with a lead shield in order to prevent x-ray from going out in directions others than the front direction.
Post with the X-Ray Apparatus : Low Energy X-Ray Generator , X-Ray Diffraction DIY
Pulse Counter
With a PSoC microcontroller we have built a simple threshold pulse counter. This equipment is very useful in several applications such as photon counting or radiation counting. A feature of this counter is the threshold which can be modified with a trimming potentiometer, between 0 mV to 1000 mV. The measaurement is done in CPS (pulses per seconds) or in CPM (pulses per minutes) and it is also calculated the statistical error.
Charge Sensitive Preamplifier – Shaping Amplifier from Micod
Micod is a russian company which build some excellent front-end electronics for scintillators-photodiode.
High Voltage Generator
With a second-hand Matsusada HV module it is easy to achieve a low noise, adjustable, high voltage generator to drive PMT, SiPM, CZT and other detectors.
High Voltage Generator with Micod module
With this Micod HV module it is easy to achieve a low noise, adjustable, high voltage generator to drive PMT, SiPM, CZT and other detectors.
Photon Counter
With a PSoC microcontroller we have built a simple “Photon Counter” to be coupled to a PMT. This equipment is very useful in several applications. The features of the Photon Counter are the following :
- Simple Counter : it counts the pulses and calculates the rate (in CPS) and the square deviation.
- Time Gated Counter : it counts the pulses received within a time frame determined by the Gate pulse, the count is enabled when the Gate input is at a high level.
- Fast Timer : it measures the time interval between a Trigger pulse and the first received pulse.
- Pulse Interval : measures the time interval between one pulse and the next.
Photometer
With a PSoC microcontroller we have built a simple “general purpose” photometer, based on a photodiode sensor and on a Cypress PSoC5LP microcontroller. The photometer is the instrument that measures the intensity of a light emission, its applications range in many different sectors, including chemical and biochemical analyzes and the study of light sources. To make the instrument “flexible” we have chosen to keep the sensor separate from the body of the instrument : in this way it is adaptable to different modes of operation.
Fast Pulser
10ns fast light pulser, it is based on a LED driven with the ZTX415 avalanche transistor.
Ultra High Voltage
Ultra high voltage generators, based on flybak trafo or CCFL inverter followed bay voltage multipliers. We have two size: 0- 60KV and 0-15KV.
Teslameter
0-3T Hall-effect magnetometer. With Arduino mini and the CYSJ362A hall-sensor.
