Brillouin HyperFine Spectrometer

Ultra Fast Brillouin Measurements of a wide variety of Materials; Biological, Industrial, Magnons, and Materials Under High Pressure       

The great challenge with Brillouin spectroscopy is that the scattered signal from the un-shifted wavelength of the laser can overwhelm the small Brillouin shifted return signal.   So, we have combined our leading-edge HyperFine spectrometer with a very narrow band tunable filter to suppress the bright un-shifted laser frequency.   The tunable filter is easily adjusted to suppress the main laser peak and exposure gating is used by the HyperFine Spectrometer to drastically increase the full dynamic range of the instrument.  The combination of these two devices achieves a dynamic ratio of 65dB with our standard CMOS camera and is designated – the Pump Killer.  The tunable filter is comprised of a double passed air spaced etalon.  The etalon tuning and alignment are both computer controlled. 

LightMachinery’s proprietary fluid jet polishing process is utilized to create both the tunable etalon filter and the main VIPA etalon in the spectrometer.  The result of the combination of the high finesse elements is unparalleled sensitivity and relatively compact size, perfect for Brillouin scattering.  Brillouin measurements are now possible with a greater than 50X speed improvement over current technologies.   Welcome to a new world of Brillouin measurements, where data can be collected quickly and easily.

The high optical throughput enables the Brillouin HyperFine Spectrometer, HF-8999,  to make rapid measurements of the Brillouin shift that have not previously been possible.   Changes in the state of samples can be observed in real-time.  To demonstrate, take a look at this quick video showing the Brillouin shift of Loctite 495 instant glue as it sets.  Note the fast shift at the 100-second mark.

Check out the latest research papers that have been published by researchers using the HyperFine spectrometers here.

Complete Brillouin Systems (laser, confocal setup, and microscope)

In addition to the spectrometer, LightMachinery has developed a complete Brillouin system that includes a high-power laser, the VIPA-based Brillouin HyperFine spectrometer, a confocal beam sending the laser to the microscope and returning the return signal to the spectrometer,  a Nikon microscope with motorized XY scanning system to produce fast complete 2D Brillouin Maps, all required software, computer hardware, keyboard and monitor.  Everything that is required to create Brillouin Shift Maps of your samples.   Contact us for more details.

Interested in learning more?  Here is a list of recent white papers

White Papers

Spectrometer Application Report - Preliminary Brillouin measurements of a cow’s liver
Greg Wardle, Hubert Jean-Ruel, Sophie Chagnon-Lessard

Measuring Magnons, Spin Wave Brillouin Spectroscopy with the LightMachinery HyperFine Spectrometer

Sophie Chagnon-Lessard

Mapping the Mechanical Properties of Cells via Brillouin Spectroscopy
Sophie Chagnon-Lessard, Hubert Jean-Ruel, Greg Wardle, Evgueni Ponomarev

Brillouin Spectroscopy of a Plastic Film
Sophie Chagnon-Lessard

Brillouin Spectroscopy of Nb2O5 Thin Films
Sophie Chagnon-Lessard

Brillouin Spectroscopy in a Diamond Anvil Cell
Sophie Chagnon-Lessard & David Walker

Brillouin Spectroscopy of a Silicon Wafer 
Sophie Chagnon-Lessard

 See our Research Papers page for a semi-complete list of published research papers that use our HyperFine spectrometers 

Sectional Brillouin map of a 500um acrylic fiber submerged in water. An area of 1mm X 1mm was covered with 25um steps, 300 ms per point, and 20 mW at the sample. 1681 points were thus acquired with <9 min total exposure time. There were no issue at the water acrylic interface where the Brillouin to pump ratio was on the order of 106:1

Pushing acquisition speed: extremely fast acquisition and high repeatability. 20 successive spectra, methanol, 25 mW at sample, GK by-passed, Lorentzian fits, standard deviation of the Brillouin shift. Stay tuned for updated results soon as we launch our new confocal microscope, leading to >2 times faster acquisition!

Eliminate the pump peak with the 35 dB suppression Green Killer, which together with the high contrast of the spectrometer leads to >80 dB effective contrast. You need more? Use a 2nd GK for >110 dB effective contrast!

Brillouin shift from Magnons, the substrate is MgO, with a thin CoFe magnetic layer, and Cr capping layer, 20mW laser with a 5 second exposure, averaged 5 times. The signal is clear and can be optimized with only 0.5 second exposures. Laser side modes from the massively suppressed pump laser are also visible