Review of Scientific Instruments

We describe the design, construction, and characterization of a Bitter-type electromagnet that produces a spatially-dependent magnetic field used for Zeeman slowing in cold-atom experiments. The coil consists of stacked copper arcs separated by PTFE spacers of varying thicknesses, generating a near-optimal field profile using a single power supply. With an electrical resistance of 26.5(3) mΩ and …

We present the design and performance of QuEL-1 SE, which is a multichannel qubit controller developed for superconducting qubits. The system incorporates the active thermal stabilization of critical analog integrated circuits, such as phase-locked loops, amplifiers, and mixers, to suppress the long-term amplitude and phase drift. To evaluate the amplitude and phase stability, we simultaneously m…

Flash x-ray radiotherapy is an emerging, promising technique for tumor treatment, and a Repetition-rate Linear Induction Accelerator (RLIA) is currently under development at the Institute of Fluid Physics, China Academy of Engineering Physics, for this purpose. To fulfill the demanding high-repetition-rate requirements of RLIA, this paper presents a compact pulse power scheme based on a hydrogen …

In order to supplement manufacturers’ information, this department will welcome submissions by our readers of brief communications reporting measurements on the physical properties of materials that supersede earlier data or suggest new research applications.

Crossed-strip anode single-photon detectors have been widely adopted in high-resolution optical imaging systems due to their two-dimensional event localization capability. However, under large-area and high count-rate conditions, conventional readout architectures are limited by bandwidth and processing latency, hindering real-time centroid computation. This study presents an FPGA-based dual-chan…

We present a standalone frequency-offset locking system for controlling narrow-linewidth lasers using off-the-shelf electronic components. We lock two frequency-doubled 1560 nm lasers to a stable primary laser operating at 780 nm via their optical beat note. This radio frequency beat note is fed through a broadband variable divider, a frequency-to-voltage converter, and a proportional-integral co…

Precise and independent control of illumination and temperature is essential for photobiological experiments and mammalian cell culture. To overcome the limited throughput and thermal instability of existing lighting incubators, we developed a high-throughput lighting incubator comprising eight independently controlled light-exposure chambers within a shared physiological environment. The integra…

Detection of molecular interactions at micromolar to nanomolar concentrations in microliter-scale samples is crucial for drug development and biological research. Microscale Thermophoresis (MST) achieves such measurements by monitoring molecular migration in temperature gradient solutions, with current commercial instruments primarily using single-point sensors based on photodiodes or photomultip…

Two-dimensional Vibrational-Electronic (2D-VE) spectroscopy provides direct access to the couplings and correlations between vibrational and electronic transitions. We present a Fourier transform 2D-VE setup that employs compressed broadband white-light probing to resolve changes in electronic spectra induced by infrared (IR) excitation. These changes arise from vibronic couplings that are mode- …

The two-stage large-volume press system, achieved by adding eight truncated cube anvils in the primary pressure chamber, can extend the routine cell pressure range to above 10 GPa. However, this system necessitates a critical trade-off between experimental duration and sealing reliability: extended compression and decompression times are typically required to avoid seal failure (blow-out). In thi…

In this article, this study aims to reduce torque ripple in a brushless direct current motor by employing a three-phase active mode voltage source inverter, and the torque ripple caused by commutation has been studied in detail. In this study, brushless direct current motors with two different pole numbers and central phase windings, which are frequently used in printing machines, were used. Nowa…

For the first time, the full prototype of the ITER Hard X-Ray (HXR) monitor (HXRM) system has been successfully tested in a tokamak environment during the experimental campaign in the ADITYA Upgrade tokamak located at the Institute for Plasma Research. Unlike conventional HXR diagnostic systems operating in the existing tokamaks, the ITER HXRM is uniquely designed for robustness. In the HXRM syst…

Penning traps, renowned for their unparalleled precision in determining fundamental properties, such as mass and magnetic moments, are cornerstone instruments in modern physics. Their applications span from nuclear structure studies to stringent tests of quantum electrodynamics and CPT invariance. Although Penning traps have been demonstrated for fundamental studies, often employing superconducti…

Measuring the thermal conductivity of high-temperature liquids is essential for advanced nuclear energy systems, where accurate thermophysical property data support reactor design, safety analysis, and model validation. In this study, we develop and demonstrate a fiber-optic frequency-domain thermoreflectance (fiber-FDTR) technique tailored for in situ measurements in high-temperature liquid envi…

A thermal switch regulates the heat flux by switching the thermal conductance of two-terminal components in "on" and "off" states [P. Hu and J. Wang, Device 1, 100095 (2023)]. We present a novel ferrofluid-based reversible thermal switch that modulates thermal conductance by formation and breakup of ferrofluid bridge between two surfaces using a periodic magnetic field. The lifetime of the bridge…

This study presents a cost-efficient complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) pulse-expanded temperature sensor (PETS), which is the first all-digital time-domain temperature sensor (TS) architecture to feature digital set-point programming. The design utilizes a shared core and pulse expansion to achieve a highly compact structure. Unlike conventional time-domain TS's with digital set-poin…

High-sensitivity and wide-bandwidth magnetometers are crucial for both terrestrial and space-based geophysical applications. In this work, we present an electronics design tailored for a helium optically pumped magnetometer (He-OPM) operating under ambient geomagnetic field conditions. The proposed design features low noise and fast response, which are critical for achieving high bandwidth and hi…

We present a novel polarization-based spectroscopic method developed for measuring the radial component of the magnetic field, Br, in an imploding magnetized-plasma column. The method is based on the combined effects of the Zeeman splitting and the Doppler shift. In the experiment, we use imploding oxygen plasma with a pre-embedded axial magnetic field Bz. Due to the axial non-uniformity of the p…

Compton photography is a crucial diagnostic technique that utilizes picosecond ultra-short pulse lasers to generate hard x rays (50-200 keV) for backlighting inertial confinement fusion capsules at stagnation time, providing fuel density distribution measurements. To enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of backlighting under limited picosecond laser energy conditions, an online hard x-ray detector w…

For digital signal testing and analysis using a sampling oscilloscope, signal equalization of different frequency components is a difficult task. The discontinuity of the sampling points induces the idea that the equalizers based on high-pass filtering cannot be utilized. In this work, an artificial intelligence equalizer based on reservoir computing (RC) is introduced for processing equivalent-t…