Ferrofluid!!! Magnets and Lasers :D

[danielbriggs]

Hi all,

I posted before that I had some ferrofluid to play with from a year or so ago, and Philguy PM'd me about it's use with lasers. I'd have never have thought of that!

Well, I've done some tests:

1.) Reflectiveness - VERY good, only some absorbed, non passes through the liquid.
2.) Quality of 'dot', not bad, but not particularly good either. The dot is enlarged and squashed a bit, move oval shape.
3.) With magnets near - it distorts the projected dot, but as soon as you get the 'spikes field' it's quite dangerous, as the beams fly everywhere, + I don't have green goggle so stopped the tests, as I like my eyes the way they are!

Pics:



Album: http://s217.photobucket.com/albums/cc32/danielbriggs2/Ferrofluid/


Videos:







Any questions? Let me know!


Dan

 

[disma]

What happens if you put a coil of wire in or near this stuff, and connect it too an amplifier? :-?

Max

 

[philguy]

That is what i thought, worst case you have a nice "random scanner", best case you might have a cheap servo so it appears that I do have to buy that stuff

Nice though that it is reflecting.

 

[danielbriggs]

Not much unless it's a fair size coil. With normal iron magnets you only get a few spikes, sometimes just a mound. But I used Neodymium magnets which are the strongest permanent magnets you can get, hence the 100's of spikes. When I first got them, I put 2x 1/4" ones on a desk about 15cm apart and they flew together and exploded!

The really big 1" ones I'm scared of, I won't touch it unless I wear really thick gloves. They are break-your-fingers type magnets


Dan

 

[danielbriggs]

That is what i thought, worst case you have a nice "random scanner", best case you might have a cheap servo so it appears that I do have to buy that stuff

Nice though that it is reflecting.

You might be in luck if you use a weak coil, if you just want 'bumps' and no spikes, that may work better, as it will reflect the beam 90% and not randomly scatter it.

I had an idea (not laser related) of connecting a jar of this stuff up to a speaker coil to have a ferrofluid visualiser, but the field is not strong enough. :-(


Dan