It Works!
Well, we had our first successful FTIR test yesterday. Let me explain further.
We had everything set up in what we thought was the correct fashion, but we were unable to actually view an FTIR reflection when touching the acrylic. Not sure if it was the type of acrylic we were using (a cheap kind from Lowe’s), or if the sides of the acrylic weren’t transparent enough, but we decided to go to a local plastics specialist company in town, and ordered a more professional-quality acrylic (I have a photo of it somewhere, I’ll try and post it shortly). They also had a machine that was able to polish the sides of the acrylic for us, so we have completely translucent sides now, which is a *big* improvement.
After installing the new acrylic, we were able to observe an FTIR effect right away, with only ONE bar of 5 LED’s! I can’t wait until we have the whole contraption set up with all 50 LED’s, I’m sure that it will be near zero-force once the silicone is applied to the top of the acrylic.
So, a big day for us all around, and a big step forward in the project.