Mixed Reality in the Laser Lab: Seeing the Invisible

Jessina Rada Author

07/28/2021 Added

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Using Mixed reality to simulate what happens inside of a vacuum when a laser interacts with a molecule.

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[00:00:05.891]Hello. My name is Jessina Rada.
[00:00:06.960]My presentation will be overseeing the invisible
[00:00:09.740]using mixed reality in the laser lab.
[00:00:12.750]I was selected to do research
[00:00:14.070]in the field of lasers and optics.
[00:00:15.800]My research PI was Dr. Kees Uiterwaal
[00:00:18.370]in the physics and astronomy department.
[00:00:20.880]He and his graduate students,
[00:00:22.210]Josh and Rafit are researching how laser poles interacts
[00:00:25.430]with the molecule of choice inside of a vacuum.
[00:00:32.000]As the laser interacts with the molecule
[00:00:33.830]an electron is removed
[00:00:34.950]and the molecule is ionized by the laser.
[00:00:38.360]Molecule then surges towards a detector.
[00:00:41.220]There can be from one to three electrons
[00:00:43.460]removed from the molecule,
[00:00:44.940]depending on where the molecule is located.
[00:00:47.700]Photons that create the laser travel in a straight line
[00:00:50.770]because light not bend.
[00:00:52.190]However, the photons travel as a gushing wave.
[00:00:56.060]The combination of each photon's line of travel
[00:00:58.723]forms a hyperbolic shape.
[00:01:01.050]In the middle of the hyperbolic shape
[00:01:02.500]is where the photons converge
[00:01:03.990]creating a strong wave in a very high intensity spot
[00:01:07.440]called the focus.
[00:01:09.010]In this hotspot up to three electrons
[00:01:11.010]are removed from the molecule.
[00:01:13.007]The image in the bottom right corner
[00:01:14.090]displays the inner most part of the hyperbolic shape
[00:01:16.780]the photons form.
[00:01:18.300]The blue section is where three electrons are released.
[00:01:21.500]The green is where two electrons are released
[00:01:23.690]and the red is where just one electron is released.
[00:01:27.040]The hotter, the more intense the laser,
[00:01:29.520]the more electrons will be released.
[00:01:31.820]Because Dr. Uiterwaal's research involves lasers.
[00:01:34.750]It's very difficult to see
[00:01:35.940]what's happening inside of the vacuum
[00:01:37.840]due to three problems.
[00:01:39.580]First, lasers can cause eye damage.
[00:01:42.170]Second,
[00:01:43.110]the electrons are inside vacuum equipment
[00:01:45.150]that is made of steel.
[00:01:46.740]And third,
[00:01:47.573]the molecules are extremely small
[00:01:48.960]and incapable to be seen with the naked eye.
[00:01:51.600]Therefore, Dr. Uiterwaal and colleagues
[00:01:53.980]wanted a way to conceptualize
[00:01:55.460]what's happening inside of the vacuum
[00:01:57.800]without being put at risk of injury.
[00:02:00.720]Microsoft has created what's called the HoloLens,
[00:02:03.180]which is a mixed reality headset
[00:02:05.210]to help visualize and conceptualize things virtually.
[00:02:08.670]And we're using that to simulate
[00:02:10.100]what's happening inside of the vacuum.
[00:02:12.500]The Microsoft HoloLens 2,
[00:02:14.310]is a headset that enables an individual
[00:02:17.440]to see virtual objects in the real world.
[00:02:20.320]The combination of the real world plus virtual reality
[00:02:23.720]is known as mixed reality.
[00:02:25.550]This is also known as AR or augmented reality.
[00:02:32.810]Unity, which is a game engine
[00:02:34.550]used to build 2d, 3d and VR games and applications,
[00:02:38.840]was used to create the laser molecule interaction program.
[00:02:42.540]Pictured below is what the scene mode looks like in Unity.
[00:02:46.250]Some coding knowledge in the programming language, C-sharp,
[00:02:49.220]is good for movement and other advanced commands.
[00:02:52.180]Other applications that are used
[00:02:53.710]for the creation of virtual objects and scenes
[00:02:56.410]are blender and visual studio.
[00:02:59.000]Blender is a software tool
[00:03:00.520]for creating 3d computer graphics.
[00:03:03.230]This is where most of the objects or holograms
[00:03:05.530]in the program were created.
[00:03:08.350]Visual studio is used as a development environment
[00:03:11.090]for Microsoft.
[00:03:12.470]This was used to write code
[00:03:14.060]and above the program from Unity.
[00:03:16.200]Unity consists of a see mode pictured below.
[00:03:17.472]Where you have the capability to edit what you've created
[00:03:22.570]and game mode, where you can see your program run.
[00:03:26.860]The only experience I had to help me create this program
[00:03:29.340]was some coding in the programming language C,
[00:03:32.460]which turns out to be similar to C-sharp.
[00:03:35.050]To learn Unity, Blender and Visual studio,
[00:03:37.600]I had to watch many tutorials
[00:03:39.150]and read many discussion threads.
[00:03:41.330]The creation process consisted of creating the holograms
[00:03:44.470]or program objects via blender,
[00:03:46.750]with their individual equations
[00:03:48.430]and then exported them to unity.
[00:03:50.840]This process also included writing C-sharp code to first,
[00:03:54.780]make the individual photons in the laser move.
[00:03:57.570]Second,
[00:03:58.403]make them move in random lines.
[00:04:00.420]Third,
[00:04:01.253]adjust the angle of the photon
[00:04:02.700]based on the direction of the line.
[00:04:04.980]Fourth, create a pause play button.
[00:04:07.640]And finally,
[00:04:08.590]interact with the objects using the HoloLens 2
[00:04:11.930]Code was written in Visual studio to animate the objects.
[00:04:15.540]Once the program was created
[00:04:17.020]and everything functioned without error
[00:04:18.930]the program was built and saved as a dot SLN file
[00:04:22.230]that was compatible with Visual Studio.
[00:04:25.420]Then Visual Studio linked Unity to the HoloLens
[00:04:28.690]via debugging action.
[00:04:30.690]The program then is visible on the HoloLens 2.
[00:04:40.040]Here's a video of the unity program I created
[00:04:42.560]to simulate photons in the vacuum.
[00:04:45.700]In the bottom left corner,
[00:04:47.250]the red flying bulbs, shown as Gaussian waves,
[00:04:50.010]represent photons coming from random positions
[00:04:53.200]at one end of the vacuum.
[00:04:55.410]The white hyperbola is not actually present in the vacuum.
[00:04:58.700]It was only created in place in the program to simulate
[00:05:01.690]the shape and direction the photons are moving.
[00:05:05.130]As the photons enter the hyperbola,
[00:05:07.320]they cross through the focus.
[00:05:09.930]This is where the very high intensity spot is located.
[00:05:13.420]Dr. Uiterwaal and his research team
[00:05:15.230]would insert a target molecule into the focus
[00:05:18.390]where most of the photons cross.
[00:05:20.610]The photons would interact with the molecule
[00:05:23.370]and up to three electrons would release from the molecule.
[00:05:26.510]At the very center of the hyperbola
[00:05:28.200]is where 3+ ions would be created
[00:05:30.760]then 2+ ions,
[00:05:32.110]and then 1+ ions on the outermost part of the hyperbola.
[00:05:36.000]In all three cases,
[00:05:37.220]the molecules ionized by the many photons.
[00:05:40.500]The ions are then pulled to a detector.
[00:05:42.910]Based on the data collected
[00:05:44.600]Dr. Uiterwaal and his graduate students,
[00:05:46.410]Josh and Rafit, would be able to tell
[00:05:48.820]if the ion was a 1+,
[00:05:50.620]a 2+ or a 3+ ion.
[00:05:53.470]In the bottom right corner,
[00:05:54.900]I was also able to interact with an object
[00:05:57.050]via the HoloLens shown below.
[00:06:06.360]In his research projects,
[00:06:07.701]Dr.Uiterwaal and his graduate students
[00:06:09.420]are working with the laser.
[00:06:11.260]It's beam, interacts with optical elements
[00:06:13.710]and bounces off of mirrors.
[00:06:15.410]Inside the laser,
[00:06:16.530]the beam follows the path that the light travels
[00:06:18.930]to amplify the number of photons in the beam.
[00:06:23.290]Because light itself is invisible,
[00:06:25.230]unless it hits an object,
[00:06:27.120]Dr. Uiterwaal wants to be able to see the invisible light
[00:06:30.300]that is traveling on it's path simulated by the HoloLens.
[00:06:35.010]Dr. Batelaan has a research project
[00:06:37.520]where he has a flying photon that flies towards a needle.
[00:06:41.350]And once the photon interacts with the needle
[00:06:43.450]an electron is produced.
[00:06:45.270]This is simulated below.
[00:06:47.580]There's still one more part to my molecule interaction
[00:06:50.140]that I was unable to get to this summer.
[00:06:52.330]Adding the interaction component to the hyperbola,
[00:06:55.040]and photons,
[00:06:56.140]and moving it inside of the lab,
[00:06:57.910]inside of the vacuum
[00:06:59.120]to fully simulate what the graduate students
[00:07:00.148]are studying and researching.
[00:07:03.780]Once that is complete,
[00:07:04.920]it will be easier for other researchers and outsiders
[00:07:07.930]to understand the research Dr. Uiterwaal
[00:07:10.390]and his graduate students are working on.
[00:07:21.960]Thank you to Dr. Kees Uiterwaal, Dr. Herman Batelaan,
[00:07:24.757]and the physics and astronomy department, faculty and staff
[00:07:27.740]of the university of Nebraska, Lincoln
[00:07:29.940]for all the support, assistance and guidance
[00:07:32.210]over these past 10 weeks.
[00:07:33.820]This material is based upon work supported by
[00:07:36.120]the National Science Foundation
[00:07:37.640]under grant number 2 0 5 1 0 5 9.
[00:07:42.070]Thank you for listening.

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Mixed Reality in the Laser Lab: Seeing the Invisible

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