When you’re talking about optics, things are often happening on a nanometer scale. This means that even the slightest amount of vibration can spoil delicate work. [The Thought Emporium] is working on a long-scale project to produce chocolate holograms, and needed a stable surface to set up some optical components. Thus, he decided to build a magnetically levitated laser table.
The build starts with a series of eight machined delrin bushings, each mounting a strong neodymium ring magnet. Four are placed on the base, with a thin steel rod protruding upwards. The other four bushings are then placed such that the poles of the magnets are opposite one another, causing them to levitate. An acrylic plate is then lowered on top, being supported by the levitating magnets.
It’s a very simple way to create a magnetically levitated table, and in a basic interferometry test, appears to do a decent job of isolating the table from vibrations. We also wonder if there’s scope for further improvement through the use of some kind of eddy current damper. It should make an excellent platform for further experiments, and we look forward to seeing some chocolate holograms in the near future.
It turns out that [The Thought Emporium] was inspired by an earlier chocolate optics project. Video after the break.
