2011 Summer Physics Research Program

at Rowan University

Karen Magee-Sauer Department of Physics & Astronomy

2011 Mid-Atlantic Space Grant Meeting, November 2-4, 2011

About Rowan: • ~20 minutes south east of Philadelphia • ~10,000 undergraduate students • Colleges: Business, Communications, Education, Engineering, Fine & Performing Arts, Liberal Arts & Sciences, Graduate & Continuing Education, Medicine (2012)

The “Gift” • In 1992, Henry & Betty Rowan donated $100 million dollars • Transformative gift

Physics & Astronomy • ~115 majors (15 women, 100 men, ~17% under-represented) • 10 full time faculty, 3 Visiting Professors, 1 Post-doctoral Fellow,1 Teaching Lab coordinator, 1 Research Lab coordinator, Planetarium Director

Rowan Physics Research facilities include: Magnetics lab Physical Properties lab Thin Film Fabrication lab Microscopy lab

Biomedical Physics lab Laser Cooling & Spectroscopy lab Computational Physics lab Astronomy and Astrophysics lab

Summer Research Program in Physics 18 students participated (initial plan was 10) 8-10 week programs (15 students) 6 week programs (3 students)

10 week program: Students work 30 hrs/week and are paid $12/hr for a total of $3600 per student or 6 week program: 40 hrs/week and are paid $12/hr for a total of $2880 No housing allowance, but employee rate for dorms ($10/day) No meal plan

NJSG $18,000 Department Operational WS $8,500 Department “CGCE” incentive $14,000 Government/Industry Grants $20,000

Research Groups Dr. Jeff Hettinger: Thin Films, Biomedical applications 4 students Dr. Sam Lofland: Magnetic Properties of Materials 4 students Dr. Tabbetha Dobbins: Biomedical Physics 3 students Dr. Michael Lim: Laser Cooling 2 students

Dr. Eduardo Flores: Theoretical Physics 1 student Dr. Hong Ling: Theoretical Quantum Optics 1 student Dr. David Klassen: Planetary Science 3 students Dr. Tatjana Miletic: Experimental Neutrino Physics 1 student

Dr. Jeff Hettinger Thin Films Condensed Matter and Biomedical Physics

• Sputtering of Thin Films: Students were able to develop a process for sputtering highly textured

Cr2AlC film on various substrates These materials have applications as protective coatings, low friction

electrical contacts and as precursor materials for carbide-derive-carbon films which will be used for “on-chip” supercapacitor applications.

• Transmission Electron Microscopy: The S. Aureus images suggest that a bacterium can be imaged by TEM.

Treated bacteria are dead and have bright centers which indicate that they are transparent to electrons since the contents of the bacterium cell as been expelled through damage to the cell wall. The untreated bacteria are more opaque indicating that their contents are still in-tact.

Zach Buck sputtering diamond-like-carbon/Chromium multilayers for x-ray reflectivity measurements investigating solid state reactions at interfaces between layers.

SEM image

Tyler Donato using a transmission electron microscope to image S. Aureus bacteria extracted from various Ag-containing solutions.

Staph in Saline Buffer + Silver diameter - .417um 20k mag

Staph in Glucose Buffer + Silver 20k mag diameter - .449 um

Application: synthesizing bactericidal films onto biomedical implant materials.

Dr. Tabbetha Dobbins Biomedical Physics Smart-design of Tunable Nanomaterials for Enhancing Radiation Therapy

AuNPs made at Rowan Materials Synthesis and Characterization

Design of Nanomaterial for interaction with The Cell

• Magnetic nanoparticles to cross the cell wall

• Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) for assessing cell metabolic function and for radiation therapy.

• Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for drug delivery.

Students working the project summer ‘12

Yoshi Araki (AuNPs for radiation therapy & CNTs)

Frank Holder (Barium Hexaferrite)

Adam Stefankiewicz (AuNPs for cell activity)

Dr. Michael Lim Laser Cooling

• Development of a narrow bandwidth, tunable, high power continuous wave (cw) ring laser based on a tapered semiconductor amplifier

Dr. Sam Lofland Magnetic Properties Lab

Student projects:

• Dorrell and Bonini - (Magnetoelastic cantilevers for energy harvesting) They have been designing a customized board with high-speed digital and analog I/O to investigate laminated magnetostrictive/piezoelectric cantilevers for scavenging ambient mechanical and electromagnetic noise to power small devices.

• Kassner and Rieger (Symmetry breaking in the

design of new magnetorheological elastomers (MREs)) They have been designing and investigating new types of MREs for use in vibration damping, control systems, and transduction.

• Dara (Measurement of materials with ultra-low

thermal conductivity) Tom has been designing a new instrument to measure the thermal conductivity of anisotropic aerogels which have enhanced structural integrity yet extremely small thermal conductance

Dr. Hong Ling Theoretical Quantum Optics • The enhancement of p-wave superfluid by mixing Fermi gases

of different species in different dimensions. The critical temperature for achieving p-wave superfluid in a single-component Fermi quantum gas is typically too low to be accessible to the current technology.

• The student project reviewed and investigated a new way to

achieve p-wave superfluid.

Dr. Eduardo Flores Theoretical Physics • Sonoluminescence (generation of light from sound)

Fig. Quantum vacuum inside a 1-D cavity with an oscillating wall. The wall has a sinusoidal oscillation. The vacuum field is disturbed.

Project was to develop a model of why a bubble trapped in water generates light from sound Project to physically reproduce sonoluminescence and to build a realistic model of sonoluminescence by an excited vacuum.

Dr. David Klassen Planetary Science • Processing and Analysis of ground-based NIR Spectral Images of Mars • Students learned image analysis: calibration, co-registration and cylindrical

remapping, Principle Component Analysis (PCA) analysis for cloud searching on Mars

• Double Chooz neutrino experiment • See http://doublechooz.in2p3.fr/Public/public.php • Front End Electronics production at Drexel • Front End Electronics testing at Rowan • Research projects:

• Photomultiplier tube testing • Testing bench setting and testing of spare boards

Dr. Tatjana Miletic, Visiting Professor Experimental Neutrino Physics

Future Plans: 2012 Summer Program:

•As big as we can afford •Exchange with other NJSG consortia members?

Success: Strengthened the sense of community Students more qualified for graduate study in physics and engineering Gives them attractive experience for industry Students will present their research at APS meetings this spring Provides a meaningful academic experience over the summer