A new wave of synchrotron scientists

摘要

The room is dark. As you cautiously push open the door, you notice shadowy figures peering intently at computer screens. Piercing beams of red and green laser light dart along the benches towards detector screens that light up with complex diffraction patterns.You're in the education laboratory at the Australian Synchrotron with a class of year 12 physics students.'The experimental set-up we have here is as close as we can get to having a synchrotron on every bench, but using visible laser light instead of X-rays or infrared,' says Jonathan de Booy the synchrotron's 20-something education officer. 'The students shine laser light through different apertures onto a detector screen and examine how factors such as wavelength,distance from detector, and aperture size and shape affect the diffraction pattern they see.'