A spectral fitting routine was developed to analyze X-ray emissions in neutron capture decay
processes that produce ¹⁹⁷Hg and ¹⁹⁷Pt. Through correcting for X-ray emissions, the
77.3 keV γ gamma ray intensities were analyzed. The thermal cross sections for the production of
¹⁹⁷Hg and ¹⁹⁷Pt were found to be 2088...
String theory, one of the more popular approaches to quantizing gravity, is a highly complex
theory, involving high level mathematics and physics. But the basic ideas of string theory are not inaccessible, even to the undergraduate. This document acts as report to my thesis project, the writing of A Detailed...
This project calculates the value of β for ice particles based on wavelength dependent values of their refractive and absorptive indices. β is the ratio of the force due to radiation to the force due to gravity acting on a particle in the solar system. This parameter can later be...
The electrical properties of amorphous and crystalline titanium dioxide polymorphs are reported. Titanium dioxide is a widely used transparent semiconductor and it is a useful oxide model. Using variable temperature transport measurements of thin films, it was possible to establish the activation energy barrier for conduction. This was accomplished using...
Brownian motion is the movement of a particle in a fluid resulting from collisions with surrounding molecules. It has modern applications in simulating fluid dynamics and the motion of proteins in biophysics. Brownian motion simulations generally evolve the initial state by applying Newton’s second law to every particle. These simulations...
Soon the largest fusion project in the world, ITER, will attempt to produce more fusion power than required to sustain the fusion reaction, this is known as ignition. The tokamak (a toroidal fusion device) being built in France will be running at such high temperatures that heat distribution is a...
When a nucleus is in an excited state, it will decay to lower energy by emitting photons. Often there are several intermediate stages in a decay cascade. Occasionally the photons in a cascade will be emitted in coincidence. This will be resolved by the detector not as two distinct photons,...
High resolution images of a dim companion in a binary star system can be obtained using a Digital Micromirror Array (DMA) as an optical mask. Imaging can be problematic because the intense light from the main star can saturate the detector and leave the companion unnoticed. Placement of the DMA...
Multivariable functions permeate physics, mathematics, and other sciences. Understanding how quantities in multivariable relationships change together – or co-vary – is important for studying physical systems. In this project, we asked junior-level physics majors to describe the covariation of quantities in a multivariable context given a 2D graph. We identified...
The ring disclination is a topological defect that may be suitable for light polarization inside of a nematic liquid crystal. Due to its stability and chirality, the ring disclination could also allow for theoretical applications to quantum and classical field theories as a model for fundamental particles. In order to...
In 1877 John Kerr described an experiment that demonstrated a quadratic change in refractive index in a plate glass placed in a strong external electric field. This results in a nonlinear relationship between the average electric polarization within the materials and the intensity of the applied electric field. This opened...
Exciton-polaritons are a form of light-matter coupling that have potential applications as photonic transistors and logic gates. In order for a photonic transistor or logic gate to be integrated with room temperature fiber-optic technology, excitons-polaritons need to be stable at room temperature and compatible with the red and near-infrared wavelengths...
Semiconductors serve an integral role in our technologies today. However, with new advancements in ultra-fast electronics, we are approaching the fundamental speed limits of traditional silicon-based semiconductors. Silicon-based semiconductors typically exhibit photocarrier dynamics in nanosecond timescales. Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are 2D materials shown to exhibit photocarrier dynamics in picosecond...
We consider development of sand ripples in shallow water flows which do not reach an equilibrium height but have a time-varying ripple height that slowly reaches a maximum value and then is quickly destroyed by the fluid. A simple scenario to explain the time periodic behavior of the sand ripples...
Rectial Program
| Scherzo - Oleg Miroshnikov
| Syrinx - Claude Debussy
| Bachianas Brasileiras No. 6 - Heitor Villa-Lobos (Feat. Kaleigh Hull on flute)
| Turkisher March - Christian Julius Weissenborn (Feat. Annie Kosanovic-Brown, Andrew McKelvey on bassoon)
| Pizzicati Polka - Leo Delibes (DeArr. Mark Eubanks) (Feat. Annie...
Pulsed laser deposition was used to create 0.1-Bi(Zn₀.₅ Ti₀.₅)O₃-0.9-BaTiO₃ (BZT-BT) thin films to examine the effects of laser energy (2.25 or 2.5 J/cm²) , pulse frequency (2 Hz or 5 Hz), and deposition temperature (550, 600, 650, and 700°C) on the electrical properties of the films. These effects were analyzed...
By alloying face centered cubic CaSe with orthorhombic SnSe, we created the heterostructural alloy
Sn1-xCaxSe. The phase separated lms created with a high deposition temperature acted as highly crys-
talline SnSe while the low deposition temperature lms acted as a mix of SnSe and CaSe. For the alloyed
lms we...
The Van der Pauw method for transport measurements of conductivity and carrier concentration were tested on indium-tin-oxide (ITO) films and silicon wafers, and then implemented on Cu10xAgxZn2Sb4S13 thin films. ITO was used as a test case for high temperature transport measurements because it a well characterized semi-metal. The mobility of...
Thermal transport properties of a material are often difficult to measure, especially for
thin films, but they are important for materials that have applications in modern devices,
such as nano-scale electronics, thermoelectrics, and thermally resistive coatings. In this
thesis, we describe an apparatus developed to measure the thermal conductivity of...
Computational statistical mechanics leans heavily on the class of Markov Chain Monte Carlo Algorithms. Many such algorithms exist, and simulations can run for several weeks, making the selection of algorithms a difficult, but critical task. In this work, we introduce a benchmark system of two quadratic wells with an analytical...