Independent Study Final

This semester I working with Ann Marie in 405 for 2 hours a week for a 1-credit Independent Study (PHYS 4099).

By working in the lab with Ann Marie, I have learned a lot about the Tagger Microscope Construction project for Jefferson Lab. And my work regarding the project has been mostly testing the scintillating fibers and light guides during and after the fusing process. After covering the basic tasks of cutting and measuring fibers, I assisted Ann Marie in taking the data for the Alcohol Test, Strength Test, and Heat Test.

Alcohol Test

In this experiment, 10 Scintillating Fibers and 10 Light Guides were placed in varying solutions of either isopropyl alcohol or ethanol. Each fiber was cut and measured length-wise and width-wise before and after sitting in solution. The masses of the fibers were also recorded before and after.

Below are the graphs Ann Marie created. They show the percent change in fiber size vs. concentration of the solution (ethanol and isopropyl alcohol respectively). It is clear that some sort of chemical reaction or corroding effect is occurring when the fibers were set in 60% and 80% ethanol and 80% isopropyl. It is also worth noting that when measuring the fibers that had set in the previous solutions, the cladding of the fibers were very clearly coming off of the fibers. This means that if ever it was needed to clean the fibers, either a 100% solution of ethanol or 100% distilled water would probably be the safest to use without causing damage to the fibers.

Alcohol Test Drive Document

Strength Test

For the Strength Test, Ann Marie had fused together 11 scintillating fibers to 11 light guides and tested their strength by hanging a mass from their fused joint. After successfully breaking 10 of the joined fiber/guides, it appeared as though the strongest fibers were the fibers that had the greatest cross sectional widths at the fusing joints, as suggested by the graph below.

Strength Test Drive Document

However, Ann Marie then conducted a second strength test in order to test if the fusing joints size were a proper indicator of the fusing. This time she recorded the time and amount of pressure used during the fusing process. Again, she broke the fibers using the same method. This test showed that there is not a correlation between fusing site width and fused fiber strength. It also suggests that there is not a correlation between Time Control during fusing and resulting fiber strength.

Strength Test 2 Drive Document

Heat Test

For this experiment, we were testing to see if the fibers could withstand various temperatures. I cut 4-1cm light guides and 4-1cm scintillating fibers. I measured their lengths and widths. The fibers were tested under 4 conditions: 180 deg Fahrenheit with distilled water, 150 deg F with distilled, 180 deg F with tap, and 150 deg F with tap.

On Monday, April 29th, the 150 degree F tap and distilled fibers were placed on a hot plate and set for approximately 50 hours. They were then removed from the hot plate and set to cool in a cabinet. The 180 degree F tap and distilled water was then placed on the hot plate on Wednesday, May 1st and left for approximately 50 hours.On May 2nd I measured the fibers from the 150 deg F tap and distilled and on May 3rd I measured the fibers from the 180 deg F tap and distilled. On May 3rd I also remeasured the lengths for groups 2 and 4 fibers because they had seemed significantly larger than what the fibers appeared to be. I personally remeasured with the vernier caliper again and had Ann Marie remeasure the lengths with the micrometer. I averaged the 3 lengths taken and used it as the final. May 3rd was also the day I took pictures of the all 4 groups of fibers.

One problem that arose during this experiment was the difficulty in maintaining the proper temperature for the water. The hot plate did not accurately represent the temperature of the water in the vials, so a third vial was set up with a thermometer inside to properly gauge the water temperature. However, despite this, the temperature still varied throughout the experiment. At some point on May 2nd, Jim had noticed that the vials were bubbling and checked the temperature to be greater than 180 deg F and closer to 200 deg F which may have caused a difference.

Another problem worth noting was that the 180 deg F fibers were arced (seen below), which may be due to the fact that they naturally rested on the bottom of the vials on the hot plate, so one side of the fibers possible got hotter and therefore expanded more than the other side, causing the fibers to bow. Because of this, I believe Ann Marie and I will be doing more heat tests.

On the left is a picture of the light guide which had been in 180 deg F distilled and on the right is the light guide which had been in 150 deg F distilled water. It is apparent that the first has been bowed, whether this is due to the difference in water quality or the temperature is hard to distinguish.

On the left is a picture of the scintillating fiber that had been in 180 deg F distilled and on the right is the light guide which had been in 150 deg F distilled. This change is more drastic than the light guide. However, again we cannot tell if it is because of the difference in water or temperature.

Fiber Heat Test 1 Drive Document