Construction of a Compact, Versatile Diode Laser Spectrometer and Characterization of Dye-Surfactant Interactions

A compact diode laser spectrometer has been designed and built. A diode laser serves as a light source. The sample holder was designed to allow the mounting of optical filters and focusing optics. These optical filters differentiate between transmitted, scattered, and fluorescent light. A photodiode transduces one of these optical signals to a current signal. The electronics were designed to perform current to voltage conversion, amplify the signal, and filter out noise. Further processing and display are performed by a Virtual Instrument , which is a computer program designed to simulate a physical instrument. Design methodology for the mechanical/optical, electronic, and software aspects of the work is include in the thesis