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Category Archives: Book Chapters

Rebuild of my diy Image Intensifier System for QP Experiments

Posted on March 26, 2018 by David Prutchi Posted in Chapter 2 - Light as Particles, Single-Photon Experiments, Single-Photon Imaging, Two-Slit Interference

After many years of use, the image intensifier tube (IIT) in the image intensifier system that I use for my experiments in quantum physics developed some nasty half-moon shadows in the periphery, so I decided to rebuild it with another MX-10160-type IIT.  I documented the build in the following document: diy Image Intensifier System Prutchi

Reader-Built e/m Measurement System Showcased on YouTube

Posted on December 8, 2013 by David Prutchi Posted in Chapter 3 - Atoms and Radioactvity, e/m Measurement, Electron-Beam Tube

httpv://youtu.be/7pbfzp8DlYQ

Javier De Elias Cantalapiedra from Madrid, Spain posted the YouTube video above to show the e/m measurement system that he put together based on the description in our book.  His measurement system is based on Hoag’s method, and his nicely laid-out setup allowed him to obtain very nice results (4 to 6% error compared to the theoretical e/m).

Javier is an industrial engineer who works in the telecommunications industry.  However, his passion is physics, which he pursues at a (very high) amateur level.

Thank you Javier for sharing!

 

EG&G SPCM-AQR-13-FC Single Photon Counting Module on eBay (no relation to seller)

Posted on May 14, 2013 by David Prutchi Posted in Bell's Inequality Test, Chapter 8 - Entanglement, Single-Photon Counting Modules (SPCMs), Single-Photon Experiments

SPCM on eBay www.diyPhysics.comI HAVE NO RELATION TO SELLER – Just passing along in case someone is interested.

eBay item number 271206242864:

“The EG&G (or Perkin Elmer) SPCM-AQR is a self-contained module which detects single photons of light over the wavelength range from 400 nm to 1060 nm and sensitivity which often outperforms PMTs. The option 13-FC indicates 180 micron diameter Si APD, Dark Count < 250cps and FC connector attached.

I obtained this detector in working order five years ago and have not used it since then. The detector comes with two unknown optical fiber cables (one end: FC, the other end: bare fiber) and a supply cable to which you need to give 5V. No manual included. The US sale only.”

Original Source for Flyback Driver Hack?

Posted on May 8, 2013 by David Prutchi Posted in Chapter 3 - Atoms and Radioactvity, High-Voltage Power Supply

Flyback driver circuit from Radio Electronics September 1981 David Prutchi PhD www.diyPhysics.com

One of my all-time favorite circuits is the the following DC-to-AC inverter (click diagram to enlarge) based on an old color TV flyback:

High voltage AC driver for 250 kV DC power supply by David and Shanni Prutchi

Continue reading→

Fair Sampling Loophole Closed for Test of Violation of Bell’s Inequality

Posted on April 25, 2013 by David Prutchi Posted in Bell's Inequality Test, Chapter 8 - Entanglement, Single-Photon Counting Modules (SPCMs)

 

Loophole-free Bell's Inequality Violation David Prutchi PhD www.diyPhysics.com

From “Loophole-free Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen experiment via quantum steering”, New Journal of Physics, Volume 14, May 2012

A very interesting article by Bernhard Wittmann, Sven Ramelow, Fabian Steinlechner, Nathan K Langford, Nicolas Brunner, Howard M Wiseman, Rupert Ursin,and Anton Zeilinger, entitled “Loophole-free Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen experiment via quantum steering” appeared in the Nature’s New Journal of Physics, Volume 14, May 2012.

This paper describes a Bell’s Inequality Violation experiment in which the “fair sampling” loophole has been closed.  This loophole posits the possibility that classical – rather than quantum – effects could be responsible for measured correlations between entangled pairs of photons in a Bell’s Inequality Violation experiment.  The paper’s abstract reads:

“Tests of the predictions of quantum mechanics for entangled systems have provided increasing evidence against local realistic theories. However, there remains the crucial challenge of simultaneously closing all major loopholes—the locality, freedom-of-choice and detection loopholes—in a single experiment. An important sub-class of local realistic theories can be tested with the concept of ‘steering’. The term ‘steering’ was introduced by Schrödinger in 1935 for the fact that entanglement would seem to allow an experimenter to remotely steer the state of a distant system as in the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) argument. Einstein called this ‘spooky action at a distance’. EPR-steering has recently been rigorously formulated as a quantum information task opening it up to new experimental tests. Here, we present the first loophole-free demonstration of EPR-steering by violating three-setting quadratic steering inequality, tested with polarization-entangled photons shared between two distant laboratories. Our experiment demonstrates this effect while simultaneously closing all loopholes: both the locality loophole and a specific form of the freedom-of-choice loophole are closed by having a large separation of the parties and using fast quantum random number generators, and the fair-sampling loophole is closed by having high overall detection efficiency. Thereby, we exclude—for the first time loophole-free—an important class of local realistic theories considered by EPR. Besides its foundational importance, loophole-free steering also allows the distribution of quantum entanglement secure event in the presence of an untrusted party.”

Continue reading→

Loved the Book “How the Hippies Saved Physics” by David Kaiser

Posted on April 23, 2013 by David Prutchi Posted in Bell's Inequality Test, Chapter 8 - Entanglement, Physics Humor, QKD

How the Hippies Saved Physics www.diyPhysics.com David Prutchi PhDI just finished the book “How the Hippies Saved Physics” by David Kaiser and absolutely loved!

The book was fun and immensely educational regarding the seemingly unlikely seed of modern-day quantum information theory.  I must confess that when I first saw the book on the shelf at my local Barnes & Noble I dismissed it as yet another pseudo-scientific account of quantum physics.  However, I bought a copy after reading the following review in New Scientist:

“David Kaiser’s How the Hippies Saved Physics is a reminder of the unexpected influence a bunch of freewheeling 1970s physicists had on fundamental theories

IT’S certainly a provocative title, but for the life of me I could not recall an era to which How the Hippies Saved Physics might have applied. Things made more sense, though, on reading David Kaiser’s mention of two other books, both of which had left a big impression on me: Fritjof Capra’s The Tao of Physics and Gary Zukav’s The Dancing Wu Li Masters.

Continue reading→

Air to Ground Quantum Key Distribution Achieved

Posted on April 10, 2013 by David Prutchi Posted in Chapter 8 - Entanglement, QKD
Quantum key distribution from airplane David Prutchi PhD www.diyPhysics.com

From Nauerth et al, “Air to Ground Quantum Key Distribution”

From Phys.org:

“A team of German physicists has successfully demonstrated an ability to perform quantum key distribution (QKD) exchange between an airplane in flight and a ground station, paving the way perhaps to the same kinds of communications between satellites and ground stations which could lead to a global quantum based secure communications network. The team presented their results at the QCrypt convention this past week.

Continue reading→

Using Surplus Photonis XP2422/SN PMTs in Scintillation Probes

Posted on April 8, 2013 by David Prutchi Posted in Chapter 2 - Light as Particles, Chapter 5 - Wave-Particle Duality, Ionizing Radiation Detection, MCA/PHA, Photomultipliers, Radio-Isotope Identification, Scintillation Detector

XP2422/SN PMT Photomultiplier David Prutchi PhD

We prepared a short note on how to build a dynode voltage divider network for inexpensive surplus XP2422/SN photomultiplier tubes.  The XP2422/SN PMT is especially suited for gamma-ray spectral analysis when coupled to a NaI(Tl) scintillation crystal because of its high pulse-height resolution (PHR).  The XP2422/SN is available from Sphere Research in Canada.

Continue reading→

Schematics for Fast Pulse Amplifier for Macroscopic Entanglement Detection

Posted on April 7, 2013 by David Prutchi Posted in Chapter 8 - Entanglement, Entanglement, Photon/Coincidence Counter, Single-Photon Counting Modules (SPCMs)

Fast pulse amplifier for macro entanglement detectionA recent paper entitled “Displacing entanglement back and forth between the micro and macro domains” discusses the experimental possibility of displacing quantum entanglement into the domain where it involves two macroscopically distinct states, i.e. two states characterized by a large enough number of photons.  Specifically, the authors describe the process by which they start with two entangled spatially separated optical modes at the single photon level and subsequently displace one of these modes up to almost a thousand photons.

With so many photons, it would be possible, at least in principle, to see entangled photon pulses with our eyes.  This would also make it possible to perform entanglement experiments with linear coarse-grain detectors (NOT single-photon detectors).

Mathieu Stephan, a high speed electronics engineer at the Swiss quantum information systems company id Quantique SA (and prolific hardware hacker) designed the very fast pulse amplifiers needed to acquire signals from avalanche photodiodes for this experiment.  He has posted a thorough description of his design on his blog: http://www.limpkin.fr.

Continue reading→

In Memoriam – Dr. Akira Tonomura (1942-2012)

Posted on April 2, 2013 by David Prutchi Posted in Chapter 5 - Wave-Particle Duality, Single-Electron Experiments

photo_tonomuraWe recently learned the sad news that Dr. Akira Tonomura – a truly great experimentalist – passed away on May 2, 2012 during the course of treatment on pancreatic cancer.

We have been great admirers of Dr. Tonomura.  Our blog’s banner is a cartoon representation of an experimental setup developed by Dr. Tonomura, through which in 1986 he showed single-electron buildups of electron wave interference fringe patterns. This experiment clearly revealed the dual nature of electrons and was described by Physics World magazine as the world’s most beautiful physics experiment, ranking above the historical experiments of Galileo Galilei and Robert Millikan.

Continue reading→

diy Scintillation Probe for Ludlum Ratemeters Using Surplus XP3312/SQ PMT

Posted on March 22, 2013 by David Prutchi Posted in CDV700 Pro Geiger-Müller Counter, Chapter 3 - Atoms and Radioactvity, Ionizing Radiation Detection, Photomultipliers, Scintillation Detector

 

Low-Cost Scintillation Probe Based on a Surplus XP3312 PMT for Ludlum Ratemeters www.diyPhysics.com prutchi

Ludlum general-purpose ratemeters are professional-grade instruments that are available on the secondary market at affordable prices.  They are compatible with a wide variety of probes, making them a great choice for educators, surveyors, and advanced amateur users.  However, probes for Ludlum ratemeters are often as expensive as the meter instrument itself, making it worthwhile to build comparable versions from surplus components.

Continue reading→

80 µCi Americium-241 Sources Inside Old Pyrotronics F3/5A Smoke Detectors

Posted on January 20, 2013 by David Prutchi Posted in Chapter 3 - Atoms and Radioactvity, Radioisotopes

Pyrotronics F3/5A 80uCi Am-241 Source

These are pictures of the Americium-241 sources inside some old Pyrotronics F3/5A smoke detectors that were being decommissioned.  The activity of the Am-241 sources at the time of manufacture (1970s) totaled  80 µCi, so they should still have some ~70 µCi left in them.

80uCi Am-241 Label on Pyrotronics F3/5A smoke detector

The Pyrotronics F3/5A smoke detectors were manufactured in the early 1970s. The radioactive sources consist of americium oxide mixed with gold powder and formed into a small billet. This billet was then placed between a sheet of silver and a sheet of gold and rolled into a foil under high heat and pressure.  Americium-241 decays primarily by alpha particle emission to neptunium-237, along with low energy gamma radiation, with a 59.5 keV gamma emission being most prominent.

Continue reading→

A Low-Cost, Super-Sensitive Paint Can Scintillation Probe for the Prutchi CDV700-Pro

Posted on January 12, 2013 by David Prutchi Posted in CDV700 Pro Geiger-Müller Counter, Chapter 3 - Atoms and Radioactvity, Scintillation Detector 11 Comments

 

Shanni Prutchi Paint Can Scintillator PMT www.diyphysics.com

We just finished constructing a low-cost, yet highly sensitive gamma-ray scintillation probe for our CDV700-Pro counter.  The probe is based on a Philips XP5312/SN photomultiplier tube (that is available from Sphere Research) and a piece of scintillation plastic.  The probe yields a background count of approximately 1,000 counts/minute (cpm) in our lab, and 7,400 cpm from a 137Cs 6.7 µCi exempt source at a distance of 30 cm.  The probe’s sensitivity, portability and rugged construction make it an ideal choice for surveying.

Continue reading→

New Book by Prof. Mark Beck – Great Complement to Our diy Quantum Physics Book!

Posted on September 27, 2012 by David Prutchi Posted in Chapter 8 - Entanglement, Entangled-Photon Source, Single-Photon Counting Modules (SPCMs), Single-Photon Experiments, Uncategorized

Quantum Mechanics Theory and Experiment by Mark Beck, www.diyPhysics.comProf. Mark Beck from the Dept. of Physics at Whitman College recently published an excellent book titled “Quantum Mechanics: Theory and Experiment.”  It is written for an advanced undergraduate/graduate quantum mechanics class.  This book presents the theory in its full formalism (with thorough, high-level math), as well as describes five laboratory experiments that explore the use of entangled photons in the undergraduate lab.

Prof. Beck’s laboratory experiments use the same type of system as we describe in Chapter 8 of Exploring Quantum Physics Through Hands-On Projects, so if you are up to the math, we heartily recommend this book to continue your exploration with your entangled-photon system.

Continue reading→

Using the $79 SainSmart DSO201 Pocket Oscilloscope and GammaGrapher with the PMT/Scintillation Probe

Posted on September 21, 2012 by David Prutchi Posted in Chapter 2 - Light as Particles, Chapter 3 - Atoms and Radioactvity, Chapter 5 - Wave-Particle Duality, Compton Scattering, MCA/PHA, Photomultipliers, PMT/Scintillation Processor, Scintillation Detector, Single-Photon Experiments 3 Comments

Connects directly to PMT probe shown in the book’s Figure 30 with no need for PMT amplifier!

 

Freeware Gamma Grapher MCA with diy PMT Scintillation Probe by David and Shanni Prutchi diyPhysics.com

The nice guys at the Yahoo GammaSpectrometry Group developed multichannel analyzer software for the $79 SainSmart DSO201 Pocket-Sized Digital Oscilloscope.  The upload of the MCA software to the oscilloscope is really easy (via USB), and it allows the PMT probe shown in the book’s Figure 30 to be connected directly to the oscilloscope’s input with no need for a PMT amplifier!

Continue reading→

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Categories

  • Administrative (7)
  • Book Chapters (60)
    • Chapter 1 – Light as a Wave (2)
    • Chapter 2 – Light as Particles (9)
    • Chapter 3 – Atoms and Radioactvity (27)
    • Chapter 4 – The Priciple of Quantum Physics (3)
    • Chapter 5 – Wave-Particle Duality (13)
    • Chapter 6 – The Uncertainty Principle (2)
    • Chapter 7 – Schrödinger's Wave Equation (7)
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    • Maltese Cross CRT (1)
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    • QKD (3)
    • Quantum Dots (1)
    • Quantum Random Number Generation (3)
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