Hello adoring Geomorph Blog fans!
This is Monica, checking in with my main project for the semester which is lab managing for our Research Advisor, Amanda. While she’s gone in China, I’ve been taking on some of the on-site lab responsibilities, which mostly involves running meetings and keeping an eye on the lab equipment and spaces. This post is a behind the scenes look into running a lab, and will mostly give y’all a sense of some of the equipment behind the work that we do.
The largest change from past semesters to this semester is that we finally have all four of our Germanium detectors operational, largely thanks to some stellar technicians at Canberra. Our system is interesting because it was pieced together gradually, instead of being purchased all at once. Since a lot of our equipment was bought from labs around the country, it is in different models, shapes and sizes while all performing the same detecting task. I’ve definitely had some hilarious calls with the technicians where they have to pull out a special guide for the more “analog equipment”.
Our HVP Supplies show the analog vs. digital charm:
Our detectors are a combination of vertical dipstick and horizontal dipstick, which basically means that the long pole that is the detector either conducts measurements on a table with the end sticking into a dewar of Liquid Nitrogen below, or the dewar and the detector sit horizontally to one another.
Top: horizontal dipstick, Bottom: vertical dipstick
The original detector, Harbin, has its own independent high voltage power supply and multi-channel analyzer, which I had largely taken for granted as very simple in my first three years in the lab. The other three use a system that is a combination of amplifiers, high voltage power supplies, and a multiport channel analyzer all in slightly different boxes that are pinned into one large box. While this system does involve needing to remember each of the unique high voltage power levels that apply to each detector, it is fantastic in that it breaks out in more detail the components that are needed to run each detector. The high voltage power supply is unique to the electronics of each detector and the amplifiers must be set to the exact setting where their analysis lines up with the peaks of the isotopic measurements that we are collecting.
Above: the components that supply the proper voltage for each detector are on the top of the array, with the bottom row amplifying and tuning the signals from the detectors for input into the 4-detector multiport.
Being able to see the components of the electronics broken out was enormously helpful in understanding the hardware required to take isotopic measurements, and the relationship between the tuning of the detectors and the results that we get afterward when we analyze the curves produced by each sample. At a time when we are running so many interesting projects and samples, knowing that the detectors are functioning efficiently is critical to our results, and I’m thankful to play a part in that!
Stay tuned for more lab updates!
-Monica
Above: Soufriere and I have reached an understanding about troubleshooting some minor issues with her energy curves and agreed to be chill for now, further calibration on the horizon.
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