A delayed hello from Aus

[SeaJay]

G'Day

I'm an Aussie PhD student, I've worked in optics doing liquid crystal holography stuff for a few years, and now I'm doing my PhD in Free Space Laser Comms with spacecraft

Now that I'm tinkering with lasers in my home lab, and can't just buy the expensive research grade stuff I realise it is useful to be able to DIY the electronics Hahahaha

My current hobby project is trying to see if I can transmit an analog audio signal over a short free space link as a proof of concept and as a demo for science outreach and such

I also have my own website over at caffeineandlasers(dot)com

Keen to talk shop!

 

[RedCowboy]

 

[CurtisOliver]

G'Day

I'm an Aussie PhD student, I've worked in optics doing liquid crystal holography stuff for a few years, and now I'm doing my PhD in Free Space Laser Comms with spacecraft

Now that I'm tinkering with lasers in my home lab, and can't just buy the expensive research grade stuff I realise it is useful to be able to DIY the electronics Hahahaha

My current hobby project is trying to see if I can transmit an analog audio signal over a short free space link as a proof of concept and as a demo for science outreach and such

I also have my own website over at caffeineandlasers(dot)com

Keen to talk shop!

Welcome to the forum. I hope you enjoy your stay! Sounds like an interesting project

 

[SeaJay]

Thanks for sharing!

I am taking a maybe overly complex approach, using a photodiode to catch the light instead of a solar panel.

It remains to be seen whether the extra complexity and alignment pains will actually result in a usable system, but my aim is to be a low cost functional copycat of the high cost digital system I am working on professionally. So I figured I use PDs at work for catching the signal, let's try it for this project

I didn't know that audio transformers were a thing you could just get, I was totally planning on DIYing an analog driver for it

 

[RedCowboy]

You mentioned holography in your original post, I came across this while researching microlenses.

 

[SeaJay]

You mentioned holography in your original post, I came across this while researching microlenses.

Its some really cool stuff!

My work was mostly in developing hardware which was integrated into holography downstream, so I wasn't getting a whole lot of visibility into what my work was getting built into so I never got to play with the cool displays like that.

But I happen to know that a few people were buying it for dementia / neurology research, because you could activate individual neurons in 3D structures using holograms. (You wouldn't want to use a laser, since that would activate them all in a line), and you could also build much more precise Optical Tweezer systems using a donut shaped hologram, and use that to manipulate neurons without damaging them

Just in case you want to know what people are doing with holography outside the consumer space

I can probably find the papers later if you are interested

 

[RedCowboy]

That's very interesting, I had read about manipulating atoms with lasers, and cooling with lasers, but I hadn't thought about using holograms.
Looks like ultrasound is also being studied for neuron activation, although I wonder about the accuracy.

New Technique Uses Focused Sound Waves & Holograms to Control Brain Circuits

An NYU Langone study shows that brain circuits in living animals can be activated by ultrasound holograms. Learn more.

nyulangone.org