Simulating Crystallography with Programmable Spatial Light Modulator Devices
Major
Physics
Submission Type
Poster
Area of Study or Work
Physics
Expected Graduation Date
2024
Location
CNS Atrium, Easel 36
Start Date
4-9-2022 11:15 AM
End Date
4-9-2022 12:30 PM
Abstract
Crystallography has been an immensely important tool in making discoveries about the micro-world of atoms and molecules and materials, which in turn strengthens our understanding about the useful properties of the matter around us. In diffraction experiments, an input beam is scattered by a crystal, into a pattern that, far away, corresponds to a Fourier transform of a 2D slice of the three-dimensional map of particle positions within the sample, mapping the special frequencies present into a “reciprocal space.” Exploration of such mappings can be accomplished using visible laser diffraction (instead of, say, x-ray diffraction) from a computer-controlled spatial light modulator (SLM) device. Because the SLM provides a programmable diffractive target, we can use it to encode tailor-made crystal structures, as viewed from user-specified angles, such that the user can experimentally explore the corresponding reciprocal space patterns. Our efforts include porting the experimental modules that we develop, from our initial implementation using commercially available SLMs, to inexpensively available (surplus) liquid-crystal display (LCD) technology.
Simulating Crystallography with Programmable Spatial Light Modulator Devices
CNS Atrium, Easel 36
Crystallography has been an immensely important tool in making discoveries about the micro-world of atoms and molecules and materials, which in turn strengthens our understanding about the useful properties of the matter around us. In diffraction experiments, an input beam is scattered by a crystal, into a pattern that, far away, corresponds to a Fourier transform of a 2D slice of the three-dimensional map of particle positions within the sample, mapping the special frequencies present into a “reciprocal space.” Exploration of such mappings can be accomplished using visible laser diffraction (instead of, say, x-ray diffraction) from a computer-controlled spatial light modulator (SLM) device. Because the SLM provides a programmable diffractive target, we can use it to encode tailor-made crystal structures, as viewed from user-specified angles, such that the user can experimentally explore the corresponding reciprocal space patterns. Our efforts include porting the experimental modules that we develop, from our initial implementation using commercially available SLMs, to inexpensively available (surplus) liquid-crystal display (LCD) technology.