Educational Virtual Beamline 2-eVBL2

The eVBL (Educational Virtual BeamLine), which allows high school students to study Thomas Young’s classic double slit experiment, has been a success. VeRSI's Collaborative Cyber Infrastructure group and the Education and Outreach team from the Australian Synchrotron have worked together to produce a smaller, portable eVBL (eVBL2) to compliment the education program now using the eVBL. 

Using laser light, the eVBL2, allows students to study the principals of how detectors on synchrotron beamlines work (see photo above). The eVBL2 is a compact, portable unit that enables users to capture images of diffraction patterns produced from a green (532nm) laser and then make measurements over the captured image.

Like most detector software, the eVBL2 is split into two main parts - capture and process. The capture function controls a HD web camera that is capable of capturing the area of the detector plate and displaying it on either a small netbook or a large displays. Once the student has finalised their captured image, they can save it to their computer for later processing.

In the process section of the eVBL2, the student has the ability to measure fringe spacing as this is not calculated automatically. Users are able to draw lines on the image, which are then calculated based on the length of the line. Angles can also be calculated by clicking on three points on the image.

As with real detectors, the eVBL2 detector can produce noise on the image. The software provides tools which can manipulate the image in order to make maximise clarity during measurement-taking. Some of these tools include colour inversion, black and white conversion and low and high point settings. 

For information on the first version of the eVBL, click here. 

For more information, please contact Michael D'Silva

More contact information can be found here.