It is not uncommon for students to view laboratory instruments as black boxes. Unfortunately, this can often result in poor experimental results and interpretation. To tackle this issue, a laboratory course was designed to enable students not only to critically think about operating principles of the instrument but also to improve interpretation skills. Students were required to build their own visible spectrometer using interlocking building bricks with simple optical elements and a Raspberry Pi computer. Experiments were then conducted to explore the instrumental capabilities while, at the same time, using Python programming to plot data, perform linear least-squares fitting, and calculate errors. Instrument response and spectral measurements were followed by kinetic studies, enabling the students to tackle a “real” problem by extracting rate constants. The main learning outcomes were that the students would gain a better understanding of instrumental components and at the same time learn valuable analytical techniques such as calibration, determination of the limits of linearity, and dynamic range. These outcomes were achieved by applying a problem based learning approach.
BiFeO 3 is the prototypical multiferroic and one of the few with both (anti)ferroic ordering temperatures above 300 K. While its magnetic and ferroelectric properties and their coupling have been investigated intensely, offering opportunities in spintronics, little is known concerning its optical properties and their coupling to the ferroic orders. For applications in the microwave range, we report on the integration of BiFeO3 onto low permittivity substrates. Such integrated films show good ferroelectric and optical properties consistent with those of films grown on SrTiO3 substrates. Prospects for the use of BiFeO3 in optical applications are discussed.
2D images of label-free biochips exploiting resonant waveguide grating (RWG) are presented. They indicate sensitivities on the order of 1 pg/mm 2 for proteins in air, and hence 10 pg/mm 2 in water can be safely expected. A 320×256 pixels Aluminum-Gallium-Nitride-based sensor array is used, with an intrinsic narrow spectral window centered at 280 nm. The additional role of characteristic biological layer absorption at this wavelength is calculated, and regimes revealing its impact are discussed. Experimentally, the resonance of a chip coated with protein is revealed and the sensitivity evaluated through angular spectroscopy and imaging. In addition to a sensitivity similar to surface plasmon resonance (SPR), the RWGs resonance can be flexibly tailored to gain spatial, biochemical, or spectral sensitivity. S. Unlü, "Label-free and dynamic detection of biomolecular interactions for high-throughput microarray applications," Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 105(23), 7988-7992 (2008). ©2010 Optical Society of America
Integrating different steps on a chip for cell manipulations and sample preparation is of foremost importance to fully take advantage of microfluidic possibilities, and therefore make tests faster, cheaper and more accurate. We demonstrated particle manipulation in an integrated microfluidic device by applying hydrodynamic, electroosmotic (EO), electrophoretic (EP), and dielectrophoretic (DEP) forces. The process involves generation of fluid flow by pressure difference, particle trapping by DEP force, and particle redirect by EO and EP forces. Both DC and AC signals were applied, taking advantages of DC EP, EO and AC DEP for on-chip particle manipulation. Since different types of particles respond differently to these signals, variations of DC and AC signals are capable to handle complex and highly variable colloidal and biological samples. The proposed technique can operate in a high-throughput manner with thirteen independent channels in radial directions for enrichment and separation in microfluidic chip. We evaluated our approach by collecting Polystyrene particles, yeast cells, and E. coli bacteria, which respond differently to electric field gradient. Live and dead yeast cells were separated successfully, validating the capability of our device to separate highly similar cells. Our results showed that this technique could achieve fast pre-concentration of colloidal particles and cells and separation of cells depending on their vitality. Hydrodynamic, DC electrophoretic and DC electroosmotic forces were used together instead of syringe pump to achieve sufficient fluid flow and particle mobility for particle trapping and sorting. By eliminating bulky mechanical pumps, this new technique has wide applications for in situ detection and analysis.
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