Transparent conductive oxides (TCO) are at the forefront of technology with their uses in
touch screen phones and televisions, solar cells and more. Titanium dioxide and tin dioxide are two TCOs that have been studied in depth on their own, so to further explore these TCOs, this project focuses on...
The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) is an international collaboration that seeks to use perturbations in the time of arrivals of pulsar signals to detect gravitational waves in the nanohertz range of frequencies. The 15-year data set will be released as of June 2023. It is a...
Background
Feline injection-site sarcoma (FISS) is a rare and aggressive tumor associated with vaccines, drug injections, and skin trauma in cats. The understanding of FISS remains limited, posing challenges in its diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. In this study, we analyzed the differential expression of miRNAs and their target genes in...
Wheat is an important part of a healthy and balanced diet, requiring six servings per day to maintain a recommended 2000 Calorie intake (McRae, 2017). Because of this more land than almost any other kind of cereal is set aside for the purposes of growing wheat. To keep up with...
Crystals are solid materials with periodic and symmetric molecular patterns. The structure of a crystalline solid determines its properties, making it essential to study its structures. From the principle of minimum energy, a crystal will choose a structure with the lowest free energy F = U – TS. At low...
Onion thrips (Thrips tabaci) are pests found in onion fields of the Treasure Valley, which is located in Eastern Oregon and Western Idaho. Thrips cause damage to this high value crop by feeding on the onion’s extracellular fluid, making photosynthesis more difficult to occur. The feeding from the thrips can...
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...
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...
There is a growing need to establish alternative approaches for assessing hazard from chemical exposure compared to the traditional method of animal testing. Approaches that relate chemical structure to biological activity are gaining acceptance in the field as in silico methods for characterizing and predicting chemical toxicity. In this study,...
Phytophthora ramorum is the causal agent of Sudden Oak Death (SOD), which is an economically and environmentally important disease causing up to 80% mortality of tanoaks in Pacific Northwest coastal forests (LeBoldus et al., 2022). There are currently four clonal lineages in the United States and Europe, named North America...
Cannabis production has gained popularity over the last 10 years. There is a growing demand for true-to-type grain, fiber, and resin crops. Breeding for homozygous trait development with traditional methods can take as long as 8 years. With dihaploid breeding, homozygosity can be achieved in 2 generations saving breeders time...
Organic semiconductors are a promising alternative to the traditional inorganic semiconductors, such as silicon. Organics are solution-processable, low-cost, sustainable, and have interesting optoelectronic properties. One such property is the formation of exciton-polaritons, quantum quasi-particles formed by an electron-hole pair in the semiconductor and a photon. This process can be induced...
Sweetpotatoes are a highly nutritious staple crop, playing an important role in global nutritional security. Although the majority of research in the United States (U.S.) focuses on the cultivation of the storage roots, both the leaves and roots are edible. Sweetpotatoes are indigenous to the Andes Region of South America;...
Wireless technologies advance rapidly in the recent time. The maJor initiative is the realization of the third generation wireless network that provides high bandwidth access to digital data on the Internet. Moreover, recent improvements in computer and embedded systems have enabled portable devices with sufficiently high computing capability.
The combination...
During the past year the rapid increase in the cost of copper and aluminum has led operating companies to investigate the feasibility of using iron and steel conductors for transmission and distribution purposes where small blocks of power are to be served. This Thesis gives the results of tests on...
The curriculum of technical degrees at higher education institutions in the United States needs to continuously adapt to ever changing technologies. One way to accomplish this is to adopt a more dynamic approach that separates the practical and theoretical components of the university education, and where the student concentrates on...
Female dairy cattle are particularly prone to infertility/subfertility with pregnancy rates ranging as low as 27% to a high 40%. On average it takes more than one breeding/insemination event for dairy cattle to become pregnant. This results in a loss of the number of calves a female would have per...
Infertility is an issue affecting millions of women across the globe, yet the causes are not fully understood, and treatment options are often ineffective. The evaluation of reproductive hormones has been a common tool used by fertility clinics as a way to predict the ovarian response to treatment and gain...
To evaluate and monitor insecticide resistance in onion thrips Thrips tabaci on onion (Allium cepa), we conducted a study using three field populations in the Treasure Valley of eastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho using the insecticides Lannate (methomyl) and Exirel (cyantraniliprole). To evaluate these two insecticides, biological assays were conducted...
Freshwater flux from the Greenland Ice Sheet has the capacity to affect regional and global circulation as well as contribute to sea level rise. Outlet glaciers are an important part of this process. They provide pathways for inland glaciers and ice sheets to melt and drain into the surrounding oceans....
With the unique conceptual and mathematical backgrounds of every introductory physics student, there is no way to design a rigid curriculum that anticipates and meets every student’s needs. We can employ machine learning to explore the correlations that exist in the voluminous data from educational settings. That is, institutional, gradebook,...
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...
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a known class of chemicals that are linked to a multitude of adverse health outcomes. There are over 1,500 of these chemicals across various families and subgroups. 16 of these PAHs, known as parent PAHs, are identified by the EPA for focused risk assessment within...
Pacific Northwest temperate rainforests are anticipated to experience increasingly frequent and severe wildfires in the foreseeable future due to climate change, increased fuel loads, and deforestation. Soil, underlying these forests, is the largest terrestrial carbon (“C”) reservoir. Fire disturbance influences soil C persistence, the timeframe and magnitude of which remain...
TiO₂ typically crystallizes into three polymorphs: brookite, rutile, and anatase. The phase selection problem in TiO₂ is the lack of understanding what conditions cause amorphous TiO₂ to crystallize into one of its three polymorphs during an annealing process. It has been recently shown that phase selection in TiO₂ is highly...
Testing the many potential chemoprevention agents from dietary sources in animal or human models is expensive and takes a long time. In vitro models can be useful for screening the right compounds to use in larger studies. We tested the MatTek™ EpiIntestinal™ small intestine epithelial 3D cell culture model for...
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play an integral role in climate change and as a carbon source for organisms living in a marine environment. These compounds have many sources, but the impacts of biogenically produced VOCs is not fully known. Phaeodactylum tricornutum was studied under axenic ideal growth conditions to determine...
Background: The immune response to microbial infections is compromised in beef cattle at parturition. Innate and adaptive immunoglobulin M (IgM) serve as initial antibodies during microbial infection before the generation of adaptive immunoglobulin G (IgG). Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient required by all mammals, which can improve immune responses...
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted disparities in land access and food security. Research has shown that access to gardening reduces financial burdens on low-income households. Compared to homeowners, individuals and families in rental housing face added barriers to vegetable gardening and growing food. These barriers include rental housing regulations and the...
Microplastics (<5mm) are a ubiquitous environmental pollutant that have the potential to cause significant harm in many fish species. Therefore, understanding the quantities at which they are being consumed by living organisms is crucial for characterizing risk. There are currently gaps in the microplastic literature regarding microplastic data from finfish...
Soil contains approximately 75% of the carbon pool on land - three times more than the amount stored in living plants and animals (Schlesinger 1999). Therefore, soils play a major role in maintaining a balanced global carbon cycle. Models of the soil carbon ecosystem assume a strong relationship between organic...
Fluorescent proteins have emerged as an essential toolset for bioimaging, creating a demand for engineering proteins with new and improved fluorescent properties. In this thesis, I explore the atomistic structure of REX-GECO1, a newly engineered protein biosensor that has unique optical properties. Since this protein has no available crystal structure,...
Solutions to Einstein's equations are usually found by considering ideal, simplified models. However, if the real world always matched ideal physics models, then farmers would milk black and white spheres. To combat this, Regge calculus was developed as a numerical approximation scheme for general relativity. In Regge calculus curved manifolds...
Background: Uterine inflammation (e.g., endometritis) causes negative economic effects in the beef industry by reducing reproductive performance. Current treatments for endometritis in beef cattle involve hormones and antibiotics, which can be expensive and are often ineffective. The endometrial immune response regulates the release of cytokines and chemokines in response to...
The decline of the Chinook Salmon has been a mystery of recent years due to their decline. It has been speculated that wild origin salmon have more vigor and survivability than hatchery reared fish. This is thought to be due to rearing conditions, possibly affecting sensory organ development. The sensory...
Hatcheries are used to produce salmon to augment the number of fish available for harvest, and to supplement wild populations that may be threatened with extinction. Although traditional hatchery rearing methods can produce many fish, they can pose risk to wild populations because they tend to produce salmon with lower...
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is an idiopathic disorder prevalent in ~5-10% of reproductive-aged women. In PCOS women who become pregnant, many experience complications including increased susceptibility of having a miscarriage, high blood pressure, and gestational diabetes, among others. Additionally, exposure to PCOS may have transgenerational impacts: offspring may be at...
STEM education is delivered to K12 audiences by Pre-college Programs across the nation, many of which serve underrepresented and underserved students as part of their core missions. While there is robust attention to STEM curriculum development and college connection events in such programs, few have social-cultural aspects of learning as...
The following text is a consolidated version of the Cakrasaṃvara Samādhi, along with the Guru Maṇḍala, Sūryārgha, Pañcagavya, Guru Pādārgha, Kāybhaḥ Pūjā, Rahasya Pūjā, Kalaśa Pūjā, Vāruṇī Pūjā, Bali Pūjā, Kīgaḥ Tine, and a Pātra Jñāna. The Cakrasaṃvara Samādhi, as has been discussed above, is the primary pūjā and sādhanā...
Different models show the effects of environmental decoherence on a quantum system
due to various environments of interest. One important quantity within these models is
the decoherence time, which tells us how quickly environments wash away the coherence of
local measurements. We can describe this effect as the quantum system...
The purpose of this project is to verify scattering mechanisms in semiconductors by measuring transport properties and producing data that reflects existing research. The Hall effect is utilized to measure the resistivity, mobility and charge carrier concentration of the semiconductors: indium tin oxide (ITO), p-type silicon, and n-type silicon. By...
A new class at Oregon State, PH 317: Experimental Physics, is designed to simulate a traditional laboratory research experience for undergraduate students. Several weeks of the class is devoted to Brownian motion experiments. Although this is a common topic for undergraduate lab classes, the experiment still needed some basic exploration...
Detecting gravitational waves is a topic at the forefront of physics. The first gravitational wave was detected by LIGO in 2015. This wave had a frequency in the 10s of Hz. This project is focused on detecting gravitational waves on the nanohertz spectrum using a pulsar timing array. This array...
Gravitational wave (GW) astronomy is a key ingredient in confirming Einstein’s theory of General Relativity and showing how the universe sends ripples through spacetime, distorting distances between two points. The confirmation of high-frequency GWs observed by The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in 2015 was a breakthrough in our understanding...
Impedance spectroscopy is a method of modeling materials with equivalent circuits to determine electrical properties, such as the resistivity and the dielectric constant. We explore impedance spectroscopy, both theoretically and experimentally through applying the method to samples of BaCuS1-xSexF. Grain boundary effects were dominant in the results, and although they...
This study used SCOUT optical modelling software to create models of the reflectance and transmittance spectra generated by mixtures of titanium dioxide (TiO2) and tin oxide (SnO2). These models enabled identification of how altering the ratio of a mixture changes the optical response. By being able to identify how altering...
Terahertz (THz) frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum have been underutilized when compared to neighboring microwave and infrared frequencies, largely due to the difficulties controlling and detecting these fields. In a step toward gaining control over THz frequencies, my advisor Dr. Yun-Shik Lee’s group experimentally demonstrated optical-pulse THz-control over a plasmonic...
Organic semiconducting materials have emerged in the last few decades as viable alternatives to inorganics in broad applications from field effect transistors to LEDs to solar cells. Organics provide many benefits over inorganics such as flexibility, sustainability, and reduced cost. However, these materials are more susceptible to degradation in the...
Type I collagen fibers, the connective tissue that makes up the human breast, can be easily manipulated by cells or other outside factors. In previous studies, the alignment of collagen has been associated with the beginning of metastatic cancer, possibly influencing cancerous cells to migrate from the tumor. In this...
The motor protein dynein is responsible for cellular processes such as axonal transport and cell division by delivering vital information along the microtubule track. A failed delivery can cause severe damage to the cell’s functionality and lead to neurological diseases. Despite dynein’s rich history in cellular research, the mechanism of...
Vitiligo is a disease characterized by depigmented patches of skin. The disease is known to involve the loss of melanocytes in the basal layer of the skin in affected areas, but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Recent evidence suggests oxidative stress and disruptions to antioxidant pathways contribute to an autoimmune...
Anaerobic digestion is a common terminal step in wastewater treatment systems and produces valuable by-products such as biogas, a combination of carbon dioxide and methane. Biogas can be used to off-set energy costs, and along with the anaerobic co-digestion of fats, oils, and greases (FOG) has been found to increase...
Metal organic frameworks(MOFs) are a class of crystalline materials utilized in gas storage, chemicalsensing, and other engineering applications. Recently chemists have begun synthesizing MOFs withmoving parts in order to further these applications. A wide array of dynamic MOFs have been created andtheorized. Among them is the interlocking of a ring...
Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) is used to characterize amorphous and crystalline thin films of TiO2. Amorphous precursor films of TiO2 are deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering on fused silica and silicon substrates. Annealing the amorphous precursor films induces them to crystallize into either pure or mixed phases of the three...
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...
As responsible energy usage is becoming more and more a part of the public conscience, a key practice of this idea emerges. Specifically, using the energy we do have with maximum efficiency. While the laws of thermodynamics remain a limiting factor, research has been done to show that properties of...
Marine sediment core OC1706B-02J ( 46° 15.4178 N, 125° 42.4543 W, at water depth 2263m), was collected on the lower continental slope near the base of the Willapa Canyon. It is a rapidly accumulating site (~30cm/kyr) located near the thrust front of the Cascadia Subduction Zone. The site is also...
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in the State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018, has observed that the trend of the world’s marine fish stocks has been overexploited, depleted, and has exhibited decreasing trend within the fraction of biologically sustainable levels. While these situations are an alarming...
Top predators play important roles in regulating communities and ecosystem processes in freshwater ecosystems. In the headwater stream network, it is crucial to understand the interspecific interaction between multiple predators. In Oregon forested ecosystems, Coastal Giant Salamander (Dicamptodon tenebrosus) and cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii) are the top predators in many...
In Nella Larsen’s novel Passing, the character of Irene notes how “no one is every completely happy, or free, or safe,” which highlights how social limitations in American society restrict access to freedom and safety from those who do not conform to standards as defined by American society– something especially...
Acetaminophen (APAP) is a commonly used analgesic and antipyretic drug that can cause liver injury, liver necrosis, and liver failure. APAP-induced liver failure (AILF) is associated with depletion of glutathione and the increased formation of APAP protein adducts from the toxic NAPQI metabolite. There is a hypothesized detoxifying pathway where...
Blueberry stem galls in Pacific Northwest are often attributed to Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The disease also is associated with indole-3-acetic-acid (IAA) producing bacteria, as described on cranberry stem gall. Lack of studies makes it difficult to conclude whether these two types of bacteria could be the causal agent of stem gall...
The variability of heavy metal concentrations (Pb, Cd, Zn, and Cu) of the terrestrial moss Orthotrichum lyellii on single trees was evaluated at two sites in the Pacific Northwest, one relatively unpolluted and the other polluted. In addition, a reciprocal transplant of O. lyellii between the unpolluted and polluted sites...
A feature of large continental magmatic systems is voluminous dacite ignimbrites erupted from upper crustal magma reservoirs. In the Altiplano Puna Volcanic Complex (APVC) of the Central Andes, a major ignimbrite and caldera plateau, magma systems are found to be long-lived and remarkably homogeneous requiring that they be maintained by...
Benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) is a common environmental pollutant produced from the incomplete combustion of organic matter, such as fossil fuel emissions. In vertebrates, B[a]P exposure is associated with hyperactivity, though the underlying mechanisms driving this effect are undescribed. Mounting evidence indicates that the gut microbiome, which is the diverse community of...
The 4.59-4.18 Ma Caspana ignimbrite, found within the Altiplano-Puna Volcanic Complex (APVC), is the result of an ~8km3 eruption that took place during the Neogene Ignimbrite Flare-up in the N. Chilean Andes. While most of the eruptions during this flare up are large, monogenetic eruptions, the Caspana that is characterized...
I construct and examine the properties of Lie and Clifford algebras which are used to describe certain types of particles. These algebras are then related to the traditional theory of division algebras. Quaternions are applied to these algebras and their properties are exploited to model physical properties of particles. The...
We explore the interactions between charge transfer exciton states (CTEs) and an optical microcavity by testing the effects that cavity resonance has on the CTEs and if CTEs can be coupled with a photon to create quasiparticles known as polaritons. Exciton polaritonics is becoming a booming area of research mainly...
Standard quantum mechanics makes foundational assumptions to describe the measurement process. Upon interaction with a “classical measurement apparatus”, a quantum system is subjected to postulated “state collapse” dynamics. We show that framing measurement around state collapse and ill-defined classical observers leads to interpretational issues, and artificially limits the scope of...
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...
The spalting fungus Scytalidium cuboideum secretes a red pigment that produces naphthoquinonic crystals that are a photonic material candidate. The molecule can pack together in different configurations resulting in amazingly different optical properties. I developed a procedure (slowly evaporating the solvent) to preferentially grow two of these configurations, which have...
In industry, there is considerable interest in finding sustainable, renewable materials for use in electronic devices. Pigments derived from spalting fungi are of particular interest due to their longevity in diverse environmental conditions. The focus of my project was to characterizethe properties of a novel, fungi-derived pigment, and to discover...
Monte Carlo methods are used to explore vapor-liquid phase transitions. However, current models are computationally expensive when identifying these phase transitions. Traditionally, Monte Carlo simulations are run across a range of temperatures at a fixed number of atoms/molecules. The Number Monte Carlo method (NMC), our proposed Monte Carlo method, runs...
Microelectrode array (MEA) dissolved-oxygen (DO) sensors were built and electrochemically tested in a solution of potassium ferricyanide. MEAs are becoming more popular as DO sensors because of their small size and capacity for simultaneous measurements with multiple recording sites. The ability to measure DO with multiple recording sites is useful...
Units and dimensions are seldom addressed formally in science classrooms, despite being one of the most fundamental and ubiquitous tools available to scientists. Even worse, science and engineering graduates are often moving into careers without fundamentally understanding units and their importance, leading to struggles in developing scientific literacy and to...
Terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy provides insight into electron dynamics in semiconductor heterostructures. High-field THz spectroscopy probes the excitonic nonlinear response of GaAs quantum well (QW) systems and enables the measurement of its coherent dynamics in the time-domain. Consequently, THz spectroscopy allows one to explore the fundamental properties of many-body interactions...
Autonomous buoys were deployed in 2011 in the central Arctic: An Ice-Tethered Profiler (ITP) and Ice Mass Balance (IMB) buoys were deployed in the Makarov basin; a Polar Ocean Profiling System (POPS) and Ice Thickness (Ice-T) buoy were deployed on the Eurasian Basin. The two different sites were approximately 70km...
Succinate dehydrogenase (Sdh) inhibitor fungicides, such as boscalid, are effective for the management of gray mold caused by the fungal pathogen Botrytis cinerea. Unfortunately, resistance to boscalid was common among isolates of the pathogen from small fruits grown in Oregon. Boscalid-resistance is commonly associated with mutations in Sdh, especially in...
Biogas can be used to generate energy from a wide variety of sources. Wastewater treatment sludge is an effective source of waste to be used for generation of biogas to make energy which can be used to heat homes and run businesses. This would help decrease the use of fossil...
Oregon is the number three producer of strawberries in the nation despite the fact that Oregon strawberry acreage dropped from 2,600 acres in 2005 to 2,000 acres in 2014 (Beeles, 2015; NASS, 2019, Losh, 2017). With over three billion pounds of berries grown nationally each year, strawberries are an important...
Endophytes, foliage inhabiting fungi, are an unexplored source of fungal biodiversity and a potential resource for the production of bioactive natural products. In this research, leaf tissues from the species Arbutus menziesii, Rhododendron macrophyllum and the genus, Ilex and Salix were collected for the isolation of endophytic fungi. Fungal extracts...
Motivated by the Navier-Stokes equations, which are a set of unsolved equations related to fluid motion in R^3, we explored the incompressibility condition and the Neumann boundary problem. After exploring, we noticed that using iterated Riesz transforms of the boundary data could be used to get information about the velocity...
Postpartum uterine inflammation (endometritis) is not uncommon in beef cattle, resulting in infertility and culling. Prolonged calving may contribute to the increased incidence of endometritis in heifers. Commonly used methods to treat endometritis in beef cattle include intrauterine antibiotics and/or hormone injections, which can result in meat residues. Platelet rich...
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...
Since the advent of graphene, research on 2D materials has exploded. Countless experiments have uncovered novel properties that emerge when different layered crystals are cleaved down to only a few atomic layers in thickness. The most popular of these non-graphene 2D materials is MoS2, a semiconductor which has been of...
Bacterial endophytes have the potential to confer benefits to Douglas-fir ( Pseudotsuga menziesii ), for instance drought tolerance. Bacterial endophytes originating from seeds are especially important. This is because seed endophytes are more likely to be the first endophytes to get established within the young host plant. The goals of...
Exciton polaritons are quasiparticles composed of a quantum superposition of matter and light states that arises from the coupling of a standing wave photon and an exciton. This research has two primary objectives: to design and fabricate a Fabry-Perot microcavity system in which to produce exciton polaritons; and to show...
Terahertz (THz) spectroscopy is a great tool not only to study fundamental physical processes such as many-body Coulomb interaction but also to develop ultrafast electronic devices. More specifically, intense THz fields interacting with semiconductors have exhibited strong nonlinear effect involving extreme carrier dynamics. In this experiment, intense THz radiation was...
Phytochemicals from the genus, Fagonia, have been attracting increasing attention due to their potential beneficial effects on human health, particularly, anti-cancer properties. Certain Fagonia species contain various types of phytochemicals such as saponins, alkaloids, cardiac glycosides, flavonoids, terpenoids, and tannins. In this study, we investigated the phytochemical composition of a...
Gamma ray bursts are some of the brightest events in the entire observable universe. Since the late 1960’s, thousands of gamma ray bursts have been observed and they have been researched extensively. However, there are still many mysteries which remain unsolved. One such mystery is whether or not the viewing...
The current American free-roaming horse (Equus caballus) population far exceeds the appropriate population limit set by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to preserve resources on public lands. Several techniques have been tested to assist in decreasing repopulation rates. The purpose of the present study was to analyze two contraceptive...
Currently multi-canonical, and grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations exist, but do not always give all of the necessary information of the system. When using a 1-D (only changing in one variable) broad histogram Monte Carlo method a user would need to run a range of simulations in order to get...
The relationship between the index of refraction and the porosity of a material is that the index decreases with respect to the porosity. This property can be used to change the index of refraction of films which allows control of the reflection of the material. This is important because being...
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 ability to focus light through strongly scattering materials is opening up exciting new avenues in many fields, such as optics, computer vision, biology, and medicine, which utilize light delivery and imaging techniques. Efficient, high resolution wavefront shaping and optimization methods are crucial to enabling this new capability.
In this...
Using a plastic bottle, we explore the capabilities of a reflective phase-only Spatial Light Modulator (SLM) in removing wavefront aberrations using a Zernike polynomial phase mask, with the modulators phase depth limited to 0.8π radians. Wavefront aberrations, which can be modeled with Zernike polynomials, distort image transmission through various optical...
Plasmon induced transparency (PIT) describes a spectral response of coupled plasmonic resonators in that coupling between bright and dark modes leads to a destructive interference resulting in a narrow transparency window. This process has many applications in material characterization and advanced optical devices such as slow light devices or ultrafast...
The dynein molecule is a peculiar motor protein recognized for its unique stepping behavior. Sometimes it steps forwards. Other times it steps backwards. It has even been observed to occasionally shuffle by beginning a step with the same domain many times in row. These motions make dynein an interesting object...