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Students get inspired at the Australian Synchrotron

18 June 2008

The Australian Synchrotron's Principal IR Scientist Mark Tobin explains how the infrared spectroscopy beamline operates to physics students Katie Auchettl, Stephanie Windebank and Tessa Charles.

The Australian Synchrotron's Principal IR Scientist Mark Tobin explains how the infrared spectroscopy beamline operates to physics students Katie Auchettl, Stephanie Windebank and Tessa Charles.

Eight third-year physics students made history recently as the first Monash undergraduates to undertake experiments using the Infrared Spectroscopy beamline at the Australian Synchrotron.

The experiments gave the students hands-on experience with a synchrotron source of infrared radiation (IR) that results in much higher quality spectra at higher spatial resolution than is possible with laboratory sources.

With the assistance of the Australian Synchrotron's Principal IR Scientist Mark Tobin, and Senior IR Scientist Ljiljana Puskar, the students recorded infrared spectra to determine the types of polymer used in several different packaging materials.

Many more Monash physics students will have the opportunity to take advantage of this powerful research facility with more beam time allocated for students later in the year.

Monash researchers have an allocation of beam time as one of the 11 Foundation Investors who funded the initial suite of nine beamlines.