Michal Usowicz with Volodimyr Duzhko
Self-Assembled Solar Cells of Nanostructured Architectures
(started in spring 2009 for completion in fall 2009)
Currently the most efficient solar cells are made of silicon and are not a viable technology due to high device fabrication costs. It is hoped that organic semiconductors and hybrid systems with...
Academic Year
Kyle Helson with John Ruhl
Sapphire Half-Wave Plate Characteristics
The polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) contains imprints of gravity waves from the early universe. The Spider telescope is a balloon-borne telescope designed to extensively investigate this polarization. Using six rotating sapphire half-wave plates, the light from the CMB...
David Jones with LeShanda Korley (Macromolecular Science & Engr.)Exploring barrier properties of liquid crystalline multilayer films(started in spring 2010 and finishing in fall 2010)The objective of this project is to examine the gas barrier properties of co-extruded polymer dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs). The PDLCs will be included in layers...
Gareth Kafka with Robert BrownImaging by Magnetic Particles with a Nonlinear Field ResponseMagnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) is a procedure akin to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) with a key fundamental difference. MRI is a noninvasive procedure which is used by doctors to form an image of the inside of a...
Michael Kelley with Volodimyr Duzhko
Spectroscopic Studies of Charge and Energy Transfer Processes in Self-Organizing Heterogeneous Photovoltaic Materials
In response to growing needs for renewable and pollutant-free energy resources, conversion of sunlight into electricity by solar cells is one of the most promising alternatives. Utilization of organic photovoltaic materials allows for...
Guozhi (Joe) Liang with Corbin Covault
Prototype Cherenkov Detector Design & Deployment
The High Energy Astrophysics lab at the university focuses much of its efforts in the Pierre Auger Observatory collaboration. As a new observatory, set to be deployed in Colorado, progresses through the design and development stage, one task, which...
Michael Macdonald with Xuan GaoLarge Scale Graphene Transistor Arrays(started in fall 2009 and will be resumed and completed in spring 2011)Graphene, a single atomic sheet of carbon atoms, was recently isolated by separating single layers of graphite and received tremendous interest in electronic applications. The widely used mechanical exfoliation...
Benjamin McCabe with Rolfe PetschekAnimating Tessellations of the Plane with Statistical Models(started in spring 2009 and will be resumed and completed in spring 2010)Artists, particularly M.C. Escher, have made many attractive tessellations of the plane, incidentally illustrating many of the two dimensional space groups. Such pictures may have different...
David McCauley with Alexis Abramson (Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering)Seebeck Coefficient of a Biologically Inspired Electrolytic Solution(started in spring 2010 and finishing in fall 2010)The seebeck coefficient is a measurement of the ability of a material to turn a temperature differential into a voltage differential. This has many applications including...
Seraina Murphy with Robert Brown & Fraser Robb (GE Healthcare)Going Beyond Protons for MR StudyAlthough high-field MRI coil testing has been a popular research subject for years, the use of carbon-13 in imaging is relatively new. The potential market for 13C dual-tuned coils has also increased due to the...