Freeform Surface

Non- Rotationally Symmetric (freeform) optics are increasingly used for both civil and strategic applications. Head Up Displays, ophthalmic optics and adaptive optics which give the flexibility to control aberrations at localized as well as at multiple positions.

A fast tool servo (FTS) attachment to the single point diamond  turning machine enables it for fabricating non-rotationally symmetric  surfaces  (free form surfaces) including the diamond turning of toric and off-axis aspheres for various applications in imaging optics.

3D Optical Profiler (Non-contact) for Roughness & Step Height Measurement

 The Talysurf CCI is based on the principle of Coherence Correlation Interferometry which provides both long scan ranges and a single mode of operation. The results is a non-contact 3D surface texture, step height and micro dimensional measurement system with following capabilities.

• 0.4 – 0.6 µm Optical Resolution  

• 0.01  nm Vertical Resolution 

• 0.003  nm rms Repeatability

Upgradation of Nanoform 250 SPDT Machine

 The following attachments were added to the existing Nanoform 250 SPDT Machine:  

• 400 mm Flycutter (An attachment for SPDT of flat surfaces)

• Dynamic Balancer

• Manual 3 Jaw Chuck.

Upgradation of form Talysurf Mechanical Profilometer

 The capabilities of the form Talysurf Mechanical Profiler were enhanced by adding the following design and analysis tools:

• Deffsys software to design and analyse diffractive optics

• Ultra Contour Analysis Software

• Motorized Y-stage

• Aspherics Analysis Utility Software

FBG and LPG Writing System

Fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) and long period grating LPGs are the recent intrinsic fiber elements important for sensors and communication applications. FBG sensors work in wavelength domain and possess a built-in-self-referancing capability. This is widely acknowledged as one of the most important advantages of FBG sensors.

A system for writing FBGs and LPGs was establishment which enables grating fabrication by phase mask (static and scanning modes), interferometric and point-by-point techniques.

This grating writing system is a versatile and flexible tool to write several types of gratings. By using a variety of phase masks, chirpes, unchirped, holographic writing, manipulating mask, control the divergence of a small beam scanned along the fiber, basically special recipes. This system also

includes other accessories like an epoxy packaging unit for the gratings. Using this facility fiber gratings of different types were fabricated, recoated, annealed and characterized.

E-Nose facility    

High Performance Liquid  Chromatograph (HPLC) 

HPLC/GPC is a system which separates low and high molecular weight compounds from liquids. HPLC utilizes a liquid mobile phase to separate the components in a mixture. These components first get dissolved in a solvent and then forced to flow through a chromatographic column under high pressure. In the column the mixture is resolved into its components. The interaction of the solute with mobile and stationary phase can be manipulated through different choice of both solvent and stationary phase.           

This instrument comprises of high pressure pumping system, different type of columns (for separation) with detectors for Refractive Index. Fluorescence, Absorbance and photo Diode Array. The separation capability is upon nano levels.

Desktop Probe Station with Femto Range IV-CV Measurement System

Isothermal Titration Calorimeter

 Isothermal Titration Calorimeter measures the kinetic parameters of enzyme catalyzed reactions and operates in a wide temperature range (-2°C to 80°C). It consists of two cells (sample and reference) maintained at constant temperature through a thermal power supply to the samples cell. This thermal power reflects the heat flow, i.e., the dissipation of heat (dQ) as a function of time (DT). The heat flow measurements can be recorded in nano to micro Joule.

 Virtual instrumentation (VI) Lab

 Virtual Instrumentation (VI) Lab recently set up at Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO), Chandigarh was formally inaugurated by Prof. Samir K Brahmachari, Director General, CSIR on 15 June 2008. It is a centralized facility, having all modern facilities with customizable software and modular measurement hardware to create user defined measurement systems called virtual instruments as their appearance and operation imitate physical instruments.

Equipped with industrial PCs having 10 PCI slots, RAID-5 interface and multiple ports for external connection purpose, the VI Lab also has the facilities like WINCE based Embedded Trainer System having vortex 86 CPU, ARM 7 and PIC 16F877 based microcontroller kits and development tools along with C-Compiler, Universal VLSI Trainer Systems having XILINX ISE Foundation and Altera Quartus II along with GPIO boards and user code composer studio, Embedded kits with 12, 14, and 24 bit multi­function cards, digital as well as analog I/O and converter cards etc are also available in the lab. Different types of data Acquisition Cards (Motion and Vision), PC Lab cards and DSP Learning Kits, LabVIEW Ver 8.2 Developer suite, Matlab Ver 7.3 and Oracle 10g are the other highlights of VI lab.

Utility benefits of the facility: This state-of-art facility with a comprehensive set of tools is very useful to scientists for acquiring, analyzing, displaying and storing data using latest tools to help them troubleshoot the code they write. It has different virtual and real time environment software for checking the feasibility of the experiments made by the scientists.

Advanced Optical Metrology Lab

A new environmentally controlled Advanced Optical Metrology Laboratory having several ultra-modern and state of the art optical metrology equipments suitable for measurement and testing of different quality evaluation parameters of fabricated spherical and aspherical optical components and assembled systems has been established. Shri Kapil Sibal, Hon'ble Minister for Science and Technology & Earth Sciences, Government of India and Vice President of CSIR inaugurated the facility on October 30 2008. The lab is equipped with a range of equipments which are used for performance evaluation of spherical and aspherical optical components as well as electro-optical & optomechanical systems. Different capabilities include Zygo and Kugler interferometers, contact and non-contact surface profilers, surface characterization, MTF of optical system, centering error and focal length measurements, laser centering device.

Video Conferencing Facility at CSIO

Under the CSIR/ ICT initiative aimed at connecting all CSIR laboratories through video conferencing in order to have interactive sessions to affect overall functioning, a video conferencing facility was established at CSIO and became functional from October 2009.

A shared 6 Mbps leased line and a 384 Kbps ISDN line are being used for video conferencing. Major features of the facility include Polycom­ Video Conferencing equipment, Samsung- 50" Plasma Screen, Onida- Document Camera and Polyvision- Interactive White Board. This equipment is housed in a custom made soundproof video conferencing room. A number of successful interactive sessions have been conducted since installation of the facility.

Semiconductor Characterization System

 The 4200-SCS Semiconductor Characterization System performs device characterization, real­time plotting, and analysis with high precision and sub-picoamp resolution. It will be used for characterization of semiconductor devices, resistive or capacitive MEMS drive characterization and Materials research.

The impedance analyzer is a useful tool for testing a wide variety of components and materials under various test conditions in the Intelligent Instrumentation Decision Unit. It has the following characteristics:

Network Analyser: operates from 100 kHz to 1.8GHz with 1 mHz resolution, its integrated synthesized source provides -60 to +20 dBm

 of output power with 0.1 db resolution, Dynamic magnitude and phase accuracy are +/-0,05 db and +1-0.3 deg allowing it to measure gain and group delay flatness.

Spectrum Analyser: operates in the 2 Hz to 1 .8 GHz resolution bandwidths (RBW s) spanning 1 Hz to 3 MHz in a 1-3-10 sequence. A fully synthesized local oscillator enables frequency analysis. Direct AID conversion allows +1- 1.0 dB level accuracy.

"Impedance Analyzer: measures impedance (inductance, capacitance and resistance) at spot frequencies or across a range of frequencies. DC bias and the AC signal level swept measurement functions are available to evaluate the device under actual operating conditions. Also offers temperature characteristics measurement solution in temperature ranges from -550 C to 1500 C. 

Confocal Microscope with Correlation Spectroscopy

The Confocal Microscope with Correlation Spectroscopy has the following features: Single molecule detection and molecular interaction in 3D; Multi-channel laser scan fluorescence imaging; Capability for acquisition of spectroscopic data from solutions in multi-well plates and tissue preparation on slides.

Field Effect Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM)

The Field Effect Scanning Electron Microscope has the, following characteristics:  

• Electron Beam: 0.5 to 30 KV (variable at 100V/step);

• Magnification  : 20 to 500,000;

• Resolution      : 1.5 nm;

The microscope will be applicable to insulating materials and biological samples.

Surface Plasmon Resonance

SPR is a powerful and flexible instrument for determining biomolecular interactions. Typical areas of use include: kinetics (on, off, equilibrium), relative affinity, sequence recognition, concentration determination, drug discovery - detection of small molecules down to

 100 Dalton (da), epitope screening and mapping, method/assay development, electrochemistry, surface chemistry and biomaterial assessment, artificial materials - biological matter, and photochemistry. It provides real-time, label-free, simultaneous monitoring of sample and reference channels.

Its modular design is easily configured to carry out customized research. Fluidic configurations range from manual to fully automated with an optional autosampler. Temperatures are programmable, micro or macro flow cells are available for different surface work, and flow rates can be adjusted.

Features

• Dual-channel with real time referencing

• Wide Dynamic range

• High Sensitivity

• Wide Working temperature range

• Automatic 24 hour operation

Potentiostat/Galvanostat

 Potentiostat/Galvanostat is the most versatile technique for the mechanistic study of redox behavior, number of electrons involved in the redox reaction, electrochemical studies, degradation studies, diffusion coefficient estimation  study of reversibility of redox couples in organic materials systems.

The facility (Autolab 302N) can function for various electroanalytical parameters such as sampled DC and AC voltammetry, normal pulse, differential pulse, square wave voltammetry, cyclic and linear sweep voltammetry, chronomethods, potentiometric stripping analysis and electrochemical noise. This instrument, with high resolution determinations, is computer controlled and ideal for a wide range of studies on fuel cells, batteries, biosensors, electroplating processes, coatings and corrosion. Integrated frequency response analyser (FRA) program is very effective in simulating various parameters from a single set of experiments.

 Features

• High Compliance Voltage

• Wide Potentiostat Bandwidth

• High Resolution

• User Friendly Software

Fourier Transform Infra-red (FT-IR) Spectrometer (Nicolet iS10, USA)

 FT-IR is a fast, easy and accurate tool for the structural analysis of organic and inorganic compounds. Its main advantages include a much higher source radiation throughput, increased signal–to–noise (S/N) ratio (35000:1 in this system) and higher wave number accuracy than conventional light dispersive spectrometers.

Spectral range is from 7800 to 350 cm-1 with resolution up to 0.4 cm-1. The system is equipped with KBr/Ge coated Beamsplitter and High- Performance  Nicolet iS10 FT-IR Spectrometer detector.

UV-Visible-NIR Spectrophotometer (Carry 5000, Varian, USA)

UV-Visible-NIR spectrum of a sample provides useful information about chemical structure and the presence of different functional groups. It also helps in determining the band energy, which is an important parameter for understanding the conduction mechanism in organic conductors. The facility (Carry 5000 from Varian) can support liquid as well as solid samples. It is a dual beam system operating in the wavelength range of 175-3300 nm. The system is used to study related parameters for proteins, nucleic acids, enzymes, biocatalysts, and other bioconjugate materials. 

Liquid  Nitrogen  Facility

The automatic  Liquid  Nitrogen Plant  is  a production  unit  which uses  a  molecular  air  separation  system to obtain  pure  nitrogen  gas which is then liquefied  by  means  of  cryogenerator.  The  plant consists of following  modules:

1. The Nitrogen  supply  module, which  produces  pure  nitrogen  gas at a  pressure of 8-10 bar and at room  temperature  to the Nitrogen  Liquefaction  Unit.
2. The Nitrogen  Liquefaction  Unit  consisting  of  cryogenerator.

The  cryogenerator  cool the gaseous  nitrogen  till it reaches  its  condensation temperature  at which it condenses. The  condensation  pressure  is  maintained by  the pressure  regulator  at the outlet  of the Nitrogen  supply  module.  Liquid  Nitrogen  is  stored in vessel.

Gas chromatograph  HP 6890 Plus series

Gas  chromatography  is a  process by  which a mixture of gases or volatile liquids is separated  into its constituents by mobile gas phase passing  over a stationary  sorbent. Helium, Nitrogen,

 Hydrogen  or  Argon  are  used as carrier  gases. 

The Gas chromatograph  HP 6890  plus  series  is a  computer-controlled  instrument  which  displays  the  data  on  the  monitor. A  mixture  of gases or  volatile  liquids  with  carrier  gas  passes through  a  capillary  column  heated at certain temperature. The gaseous  mixture  is  separated  constituents  as  the  different  gases  and  organic  liquids  have  different  retention  time  is the parameter  to identify   different  constituents.

The  instrument  has  two  detectors – flame  ionization  detector  &  thermal  conductivity   detector, which are  used  to  detect, &   quantitatively  determine  the  concentration  of gases  on the  basis of  peak  area.Gas  chromatograph  can determine  gaseous  &  organic  volatile  mixtures  as  low  as  parts per  million.

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