Star Wars technology

Today we were wielding a slightly different bit of extreme technology. The NWR213 ESi laser ablation system down at the Cornwall School of Mines. 

A drawer in the front of the unit accepted an innocent rock thin section - a microscope slide with piece of rock ground down to 30microns to make the minerals transparent. Then the air was pumped from the unit and from the computer controls we could examine the thin section under the optical microscope. Once a suitable target mineral crystal had been identified, we powered up the high-power laser weapon and blew it to smithereens. POW!

Sitting next to the laser ablation unit and connected by a small vacuum tube is an ICPMS unit that sniffs the fumes from the battle zone. Using a bit of spectral wizardry it feeds a list of all the component elements back to another computer where we could see the true constituents of the now ex-mineral. Real 'whizz-bang' science ... love it!

The extra shows part of the slide under the optical microscope. The dark square craters mark the ablated areas.