Finally

Today, after 4 significant Friday/Saturday snowfalls, I finally received a snow day. Woo hoo, as they say.

Snow? Please?

So far this winter, we've gotten three significant snows. All of them have come on Friday night or Saturday, allowing plenty of time for the roads to be cleared before the next workday. Can we please just have a snow day, already?

Plausible

I recently surprised Joan a bit by pointing out that I was not a physicist, as she had just implied, since all my degrees are in electrical engineering.  She explained her implication by saying that I was "plausibly a physicist."  I took that as a compliment, since most of the people I work with, including her, are physicists, and not just plausibly.

Half as Much Effort

If I put half as much thought and effort into my job as I do into whatever my current hobby, sport, or other addiction is, I'd be one of the most productive people at the lab. 

Tapered Fibers

I don't usually post about my work, partially because it's not very accessible to the lay reader but mostly because I'm the kind of person who leaves work at the workplace. However, I'd like to share some pretty micrographs---photographs taken through a microscope---that Michael D., Brian R. and I took on Friday.

As part of this project, we are learning how to taper an optical fiber, which start out with a diameter of 125 um, down to 5 um or narrower. At this diameter, and at our intended operating wavelength of 1000 or 1550 nm, the evanescent field of the guided optical mode extends beyond the surface of the glass and carries a significant fraction of the optical power. In other words, the fiber still guides light, but much of that light is carried along outside the fiber, in the air or whatever happens to be around the fiber.

Our plan is to take advantage of the properties of this kind of fiber and incorporate one into a passively mode-locked fiber laser. But that's not important for understanding these pics, so I won't elaborate. (Also, I'd rather not disclose our---read, Michael D.'s---clever plans.)

This is an untapered section of the fiber. Note that its diameter is 125 um.

Here you can see the beginning of the taper.

More of the tapered region.

This is the waist, or narrowest part, of the taper.

This is a much higher-magnification image of the waist. Note that the fiber is about 5 um in diameter here. The depth of focus at this magnification is only a few microns, so it's impossible to get a single image in which both the upper surface of glass, closest to the camera, and the edges are in focus. Additionally, becuase the fiber is mounted with a bit of a slope, with the right end of the fiber closer to the camera than the left, we can't get both ends of this image in focus.

Occupational Hazards

It occurs to me that my job is one of the few where one frequently carries the equivalent of 50,000 or 100,000 dollars in one hand. And it doesn't seem like a big deal, until I think , "this bit-error-rate test-set is worth as much as everything I own." Maybe I should be careful.

Other such occupations include jeweler, classical musician, and museum curator.

Congrats, Again, Ash

As regular readers know, Alison's sister, Ashley, recently graduated from college. About 2 weeks ago, she came to stay with us for a bit. One purpose of her trip was to visit us, but the principal reason was to attend a job fair being held by local high schools looking for teachers. As you've surely guessed by now, she found a job; she'll be teaching history in Charles County, Maryland in the fall. She also found herself an apartment and roomate, and she'll be moving to MD in just 2 months.

So, congratulations, Ashley. We look forward to having family in-state.

What Price Privacy?

A few months ago, my officemate---Let's call him "Bob"---was out for about four weeks* for "treatment of a medical condition." Now, those of you who've met Bob know he's a very laconic individual; most of the time, he works away quietly on his computer, and I hardly know he's there. Thus, you won't be surprised to learn that "treatment of a medical condition" was the only explanation---or even acknowledgment---of his absence I received. Now Bob's been gone for an additional four weeks,* with no indication of when he will return. I've certainly enjoyed having my own office---though it's not that different from sharing one with him**---but I don't think I want to have it at the cost of some serious illness to a nice, if shy, engineer.

* He was supposed to be out for three weeks.
** See previous comment on Bob's taciturnity.