Dear All,
This is a general announcement related to the state of the Raman system you have all been using where I would like to make a couple of important points.
First of all, I noticed that on several occasions the laser key holder box in the Raman lab was left unlocked by a user. Please note that it is important that you return the keys to the box and lock it before leaving the lab as otherwise unauthorised access to the lasers is a possibility (and may result in the lab being shutdown as not conforming to the laser safety rules).
Second (and a more alarming) development is I have discovered that 20x long working distance objective has been removed by someone and have now gone missing. Can whoever removed the objective please return it to the microscope as this jeopardises experiments by your colleagues. Alternatively, please let me know if you removed the objective for whatever legitimate reason there might be. Please note that under no circumstances you must remove objectives without talking first to me or Dr Sam Eardley (s.eardley@qmul.ac.uk, our Laser & Optics Lab Manager).
May I also remind all users that you should always start your experiments by using the lowest magnification (5x) objective and return the objective turret to that same position at the end of your experiments. This rule helps us to avoid objective damage that would inevitably result in system being unavailable, not to mention the need for a costly replacement.
All the best wishes
Dr Andrei Sapelkin
