Nicholas Clyde with John Ruhl
Polarization Properties of Half-wave Plates
Millimeter wave optical components are useful for current Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB) experiments in the field of astrophysics. Therefore, it is useful to characterize these components. The purpose of this study is to test specifically the polarization properties of Millimeter...
Case Physics
Calvin Gao with Dan Akerib and Tom ShuttAnalysis of Single-Electron/Few-Electron Background in LUX S2 DataThe LUX dark matter experiment consists of a two-phase xenon detector which detects interactions between particles and the xenon nuclei and electrons. Such interactions will excite the xenon atoms causing them to emit photons and...
Kristen McKee with John Ruhl
Measuring Scattering, Absorption, and Reflection Properties for Filters in the South Pole Telescope
A current problem with many ground-based telescope experiments, such as the South Pole Telescope, is that the optical loading on the detectors is undesirably high. In the South Pole Telescope, millimeter-wavelength photons from...
Jeffrey Oleski with Michael Martens and David Doll
Persistent Switch Design for MgB2 Superconducting Magnet
High quality MRI imaging requires that the main magnetic field remain temporally stable to within 0.1 ppm per hour, which is achieved by operating the main superconducting magnet in persistent current mode. After a power supply...
Andrew Oriani with Kathleen Kash
A Novel Route to Synthesis of Sn3N4 and ZnSnN2 Thin Films
III-Nitride direct band-gap materials have long been used in opto-electronic applications ranging from consumer high density optical storage devices and LED’s to ultraviolet research lasers.1-2 By replacing the group-III sublattice with an II-IV ordered pair...
Daniel Pfeffer with Claudia de Rham
The Accelerating Universe and Vacuum Energy
During his senior project, Daniel Pfeffer will investigate the acceleration of the Universe. He will explore whether or not it is possible to screen the effect of a large vacuum energy and give rise the amount of acceleration currently...
Michael Sammon with Harsh Mathur
Axion Electrodynamics
Axions were introduced in particle physics in the 1970s to explain CP violation in the standard model. Subsequently axions have become a leading candidate for dark matter in Cosmology. The axion field has an unusual coupling to electromagnetism leading to remarkable electromagnetic phenomena that...
Gregory Stephen with Robert Brown and Bob Deissler
Design and Implementation of a Low Cost Malaria Diagnosis Device
A major challenge in malaria diagnosis is the need for a cheap, portable device capable of detecting low concentrations of the malaria pigment, hemozoin. The malaria parasite converts hemoglobin in the blood into...
Evan Telford with Harsh Mathur
The Relativistic Hofstadter Problem
Hofstadter studied electrons in a strong magnetic field perturbed by a weak periodic potential on a square lattice. He found that the energy levels plotted as a function of the magnetic field formed a beautiful pattern with a recursive structure now Hofstadter...
Dylan Yurgionas with Dan Akerib and Tom ShuttModeling Gamma Ray Background from LUX Characterization of background is important for finding WIMP recoil events. Based on their cross sections, WIMPs will only scatter once inside the two phase xenon detector, LUX. Incident gamma rays from trace radioactive impurities in detector...