For the past two years of my postdoc, I have been working on the construction of an instrument for cryogenic gas-phase IR spectroscopy. Recently, we collected the first dataset! #science #scicomm #physics #spectroscopy #laser

Who doesn’t love an unpacking video when it’s about a laser? 😁 #laser #optics #scicomm #science #physics

When you’re collimating a NIR light source and your viewing cards are not at arm’s reach, you can always use your phone camera ;) #science #scicomm #optics #physics #engineering

When you’re trying to shoot a laser through an entire modified mass spectrometer for action spectroscopy, you also get to see if the ion optics are properly aligned. Thankfully, this green dot came through without issues. #science #laser #physics #scicomm #spectroscopy

Today is a let’s-build-a-microscope kinda day! #science #optics #scicomm #physics #microscopy

This biggie has arrived recently. Let’s see what gets built on it! #optics #spectroscopy #engineering #physics #science

We've opened our new nonlinear crystal, and this was the surface coating quality. Besides the spots, what worries me is the streaks that are seemingly under the coating. What's your take? #science #sciencechat #physics #optics #laser

Hello there, YAG rod! #physics #laser #science

It’s super cool when interfacial reflections right around the laser focus create this tiny light bump at the surface of the Raman calibration block. #laser #optics #opticsbuilding #Raman #microscope

Sadly, these were the first signs that something's off with our pump laser. The deformed spot and non-concentrical fringes are a sad marker of burnt optics. #science #laser #physics

Ooops. It looks like we’re dealing with a burnt Pockels cell 😬