Title

RAPID PRECISION INTERFEROMETRY FOR THE ANALYTICAL ULTRACENTRIFUGE

Date of Completion

January 1981

Keywords

Biophysics, General

Degree

Ph.D.

Abstract

Four instruments have been designed, constructed and tested that speed up the taking of data from the analytical ultracentrifuge Rayleigh interference optical system. The Raleigh interference optical system produces a cell image in which the concentration at each radial position is represented by the vertical displacement of a set of equally spaced horizontal fringes. The first instrument determines the fringe displacement from interferograms. The seconds instrument mounts directly on the ultracentrifuge and measures the fringe displacement at a single radial position every twelve seconds. The third system determines mounts directly on the ultracentrifuge and measures the fringe displacement at 342 radial positions every 20 seconds. The fourth instrument synchronizes the operation of the data taking devices with the pulsed laser light source used to produce the Rayleigh images. Data is presented demonstrating the performance of each of the four systems. ^

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