ND2007 - Student Profiles

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Tom Butler: Postdoc, Physics (Talk); Graduated: 2007 (Resume); Nanopore analysis of nucleic acids involves the observation of ionic current blockades that are produced when individual DNA molecules are electrically driven through a nanometer-scale pore. This technique yields novel information about DNA physical properties and it has the potential to be a central component of a fundamentally new DNA sequencing methodology. Through detailed analysis of the ionic current blockades I have elucidated a number of mechanistic details underlying DNA passage through protein nanopores, and I am presently collaborating with a biologist to engineer an improved protein nanopore for DNA analysis.
Yeechi Chen: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Poster); Expected Graduation: 2008 (Resume); The optical properties of fluorescent dyes are significantly modified when placed near noble metal nanostructures. The enhancement or quenching of fluorescence depends strongly on the dye-to-metal spacing, as well as the overlap between the surface plasmon resonance spectrum and the dye absorption/emission spectra. A better understanding of these dependencies has the potential to improve the performance of biosensors and nanophotonic devices. I use a variety of bio-inspired linkers to attach dyes to silver nanoprisms for a well-defined structure. I then characterize the systems with correlated epi-fluorescence and darkfield microscopy.
Marcus D. Collins: Postdoc, Chemistry (Poster); Graduated: 2007; My research focuses on the physical interactions between the two sides of a bilayer lipid membrane, which models cellular membranes. Ordinarily, such models' two sides are identical, while in cells this is frequently not the case, so an additional challenge has been to incorporate this "asymmetry" into my work, and show for the first time the startling effects this has on the properties of the membrane. In order to carry out this research, I developed and built new electronic, mechanical and optical instrumentation.
Eric Deyo: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Poster); Expected Graduation: 2009; My research is aimed at developing the theory of new effects in nonequilibrium systems lacking inversion symmetry. The term in the nonlinear I-V characteristics of mesoscopic samples which is linear in magnetic field, and quadratic in voltage is a prime example of such an effect. We find that by measuring this current, one can extract the magnitude of electron-electron interactions. For a field oriented parallel to the plane of a sample, one can also measure the spin-orbit scattering rate.
Matt Dietrich: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Talk, Poster); Expected Graduation: 2010; I will present progress towards using an isotope of Barium as a qubit for quantum computation. Single ions held in Pauli traps are the current front-runners in the marathon race for quantum computation. They are well understood, easy to manipulate, long lived, and all identical to one another. Barium 137 is particularly convenient on all accounts, providing, for example, a very useful method for readout with the use of a shelved state. We have made much progress towards the goal of tapping barium's many advantages.
Oliver Fraser: Ph.D. Candidate, Astronomy (Talk); Expected Graduation: 2008 (Resume); Although pulsation and mass-loss are ubiquitous phenomena among giant stars, it is not yet understood how and when stars return processed material to the galaxy at the end of their lives. By taking advantage of the excellent photometry and long time baseline of the MACHO Variable Star Catalog, we constrain the relationship between pulsation and stellar evolution, and define classes of evolved stars based on their pulsational properites.
Charlie Hagedorn: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Lab Tour); Expected Graduation: 2009; My research group focuses on precision tests of gravity and searches for forces weaker than gravity. While no new interactions have been found, the limits set by our torsion balance experiments place stringent constraints on modern theory. We're presently testing the relationship between gravitational and inertial mass, testing Newton's inverse square law at short range, hunting for forces that couple to electron spin, investigating a possible dark matter candidate, and performing tests for NASA's LISA gravitational wave detecting spacecraft. Come see modern implementations of 17th century technology as they slowly but surely teach us more about our universe!
Michael Hegg: Ph.D. Candidate, Electrical Engineering (Poster); Expected Graduation: 2008; My research is in the area of nanophotonics, and focuses on modeling, fabrication, and testing of quantum dot nanocrystal-based devices. Specifically, I have designed, fabricated, and tested a nanocrystal quantum dot photodetector with high spatial resolution and sensitivity. The detector is fabricated by drop-casting a liquid droplet of CdSe nanocrystals into a lithographically-defined 30 nm gap between Au electrodes. The size of the gap is decreased(increased) by over(under)-exposing during EBL. These devices have attained a sensitivity of 5 pW or less, and may find practical applications in nanophotonic integrated circuits, solar cell applications, and high-sensitivity infrared imaging.
Ludan Huang: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Poster); Expected Graduation: 2009; My research focuses on nano-photonic devices. In particular, I work on the modeling, fabrication and testing of such devices.
Andrew Jones: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Poster); Expected Graduation: 2010; I study the properties of plasmonic metal nanostructures to transfer and concentrate light to highly-confined regions. The spectral selectivity of the confinement sensitively depends on sample material and geometric details. The fundamental understanding of the near-field coupling between the radiation field and optical excitation of the medium thus provides the basis for the rational design of photonic devices for bioanalytic sensor applications, wave guides, optical switches, or nanoscopic light sources.
Nathan Kurz: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Lab Tour); Expected Graduation: 2010; I trap and cool single Barium ions with the goal of creating remote entangled states for networked quantum computation. Trapped ions are attractive candidates for quantum computing because of fast and straight-forward gate operations, long coherence times and scalable trap architectures. Barium is particularly well-suited because of its long-lived hyperfine states, low-lying metastable states for readout and convenient cooling transitions in the visible spectrum. My current goals include the generation of single photons from trapped ions in which the photon state is entangled with the ion spin state, coupling these photons into single mode fiber for the transmission of quantum information and finally the generation of heralded coupling of remote ions by performing this process on two trapped ions.
Erin Lay: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Talk); Expected Graduation: 2008 (Resume); The World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) is the only real-time global lightning detection network. This network is in its fifth year of full global coverage, and I have been instrumental in testing and improving the WWLLN over these years. I am currently studying the types of lightning strokes that WWLLN detects to better understand the ionospheric propagation of the very low frequency waves emitted by lightning strokes.
Michelle Leber: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Talk, Poster); Expected Graduation: 2009; I have been working on background simulations for the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino experiment (KATRIN). This experiment aims to measure neutrino mass by looking for shape deviations in the electron's energy spectrum emitted in tritium beta decay. The electron is detected with a silicon PIN diode with energy near the tritium endpoint, 18.6 keV. I perform background simulations to investigate any other sources that could mimic an 18.6 keV signal in silicon.
Tracy Lovejoy: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Lab Tour); Expected Graduation: 2009; My group works to synthesize novel semiconductor compounds on silicon substrates. I examine the properties of these compounds in our ultra-high vacuum chamber with various tools including scanning tunneling spectroscopy.
Xiaoyu Miao: Ph.D. Candidate, Electrical Engineering (Poster); Expected Graduation: 2008; I am developing a non-invasive technique for manipulation at micro and nano scale by utilizing the localized surface plasmons. We have demonstrated the trapping, translation, and mixing of polystyrene spheres, yeast cells, and nanorods.
Kenneth Nagle: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Poster); Expected Graduation: 2009; Although lithium-ion batteries now see widespread use, there is considerable room for improvement in both the cost and environmental consequences of the metal oxide cathodes. X-ray Raman scattering (XRS) is used to investigate charge transfer in possible alternative metal oxide cathodes. XRS is a bulk-sensitive alternative to x-ray absorption and electron energy loss spectroscopies for the determination of local electronic structure. I will present preliminary momentum transfer-dependent XRS spectra of the Ti LII,III-edge in various titanium oxides. My future work includes measurements of the O K-edge for further determination of charge transfer upon lithiation and construction of an in situ battery for XRS measurements.
Noah Oblath: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Poster); Expected Graduation: 2008; The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) detects neutrinos coming from the sun. My goal is to analyze the data from the Neutral-Current Detector (NCD) Array in SNO and, combined with other data from SNO, determine the total neutrino flux. As part of this analysis I am developing a simulation of the pulses from the NCD Array. I lead the group working on the simulation and I am working on simulating certain physical processes and the electronics.
James Prager: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Poster); Expected Graduation: 2008 (Resume); The High Power Helicon eXperiment (HPHX) uses a radio-frequency wave to produce a high-density plasma with a bulk ion flow, which is not observed at other helicon experiments. The traditional theory does not explain this flow; however, HPHX operates at a higher power, lower neutral background, and on shorter times than traditional helicon experiments. My research involves making density, temperature, ion energy, and magnetic field measurements and using this data to investigate how the wave drives energy into the plasma that results in the flow. HPHX has direct applications in astrophysical phenomena, plasma processing, and in-space thrusters.
Micah Prange: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Talk); Expected Graduation: 2008; There is no comprehensive source for optical constants of arbitrary materials at arbitrary frequencies, even though optical constants have many applications. We have developed an extension to a popular x-ray spectroscopy code that calculates the frequency dependent complex dielectric function, index of refraction, and other optical constants in the energy range 0-100 keV. The index of refraction, normal incidence reflectivity, absorption coefficient, and energy loss spectrum are then computed from the dielectric function. This process is automated in a portable FORTRAN code that can be run in reasonable time on a desktop computer.
Sky Sjue: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Poster, Lab Tour); Expected Graduation: 2008; I study the electroweak interaction with precision nuclear physics experiments. We are looking for clues toward a more complete fundamental theory of particle physics. Previously, I worked on precision experiments to measure the decay products of polarized neutrons, which can be used to test the unitarity of the CKM matrix and the possible existence of a fourth-generation of quarks. Currently, I am working on an experiment to measure the electron-capture branch of 100Tc. This measurement would provide a predictive test for nuclear many-body calculations of the double-beta decay 100Mo. These calculations are important in the interpretation of neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments.
Dan Sluss: Ph.D. Candidate, Chemistry (Poster); Expected Graduation: 2008 (Resume); One strategy for increasing the efficiency of organic electro-optic devices based on chromophore-polymer composite materials is to improve chromophore ordering. In these materials, ordering is induced through the interaction of the chromophore dipole moment with an external electric field, a process referred to as �poling�. To provide insight into the molecular details of the poling process, I have investigated the rotational dynamics of three different chromophores in a polymer host using single-molecule confocal fluorescence microscopy by adding an external electric field and varying the chromophoric geometry.
Adam Sorini: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Talk); Expected Graduation: 2008 (Resume); My research involves theoretical (pencil and paper) and numerical (big computers) studies of the absorption and scattering of photons in real condensed-matter systems (e.g., diamond, silicon, graphene, copper, gold, human flesh, etc). I am looking at high-energy (~300 keV) electron microscopes and electron scattering in condensed-matter systems, and, in particular, finding "small" relativistic corrections to standard theories and exploiting them. I am interested in the general problem of how a real many-body system responds when it is pounded upon with any of the various available probes (electron, photon, neutron, hammer, etc).
Chris Spitzer: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Talk); Expected Graduation: 2009; I work with the theory and phenomenology of particles, focusing on Beyond-the-Standard-Model theories that can be tested cosmologically or in accelerators. The goal is to understand what the outstanding observational puzzles, such as dark matter and dark energy, tell us about the underlying physical structure of matter. In particular, my research includes the physics of neutrino mass, unparticles, and extra dimensions. The theory is worked out in a traditional pen-and-paper mode, but often also requires numerical computation and simulation. I also spend a large amount of time reading and understanding the work of experimentalists, which provides vital guidance in forming theory.
William Trimble: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Talk, Poster, Lab Tour); Expected Graduation: 2007; Several groups here at the University of Washington are working on problems in atomic physics--using atoms and ions both as tools and as objects of study to reveal further physics. Recent work here includes the search for an electric dipole moment of mercury atoms, trapping of single ions for high-stability optical clocks, trapping of chains of ions for quantum encoding and manipulation of information, high-precision measurements of the properties of single trapped ions, and exploration of the interactions between cold atoms of different species. Lasers, ion traps, and atom traps are among the tools we continue to use and develop here in the UW Physics department in the groups of Drs. Fortson, Nagourney, Van Dyck, Blinov, and Gupta.
Brandon Wall: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Poster); Expected Graduation: 2010; I am characterizing silicon PIN diodes for the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino experiment. We have constructed a vacuum chamber, where we fire electrons at the surface of the PIN diodes to discover there properties. I am measuring the PIN diode energy response and dead layer.\
Joe Wasem: Ph.D. Candidate, Physics (Talk); Expected Graduation: 2009 (Resume); My research concerns Lattice QCD (Quantum Chromodynamics) and the effective field theories that are used to analyze lattice QCD data. Lattice QCD is the only known way of computing observables from QCD that describe nuclear physics interactions. However, due to computational constraints lattice QCD calculations are often done in extremely small volumes and at unphysical particle masses. To account for the effects of this, chiral effective theory is used, and my research concerns calculations with this theory in extremely small volumes (on the order of the size of the proton).
Risa Wong: BS Candidate, Physics (Poster); Expected Graduation: 2009; I am working on a new method to potentially sequence DNA directly, inexpensively, and quickly. I apply a voltage across a single biological protein pore in a lipid bilayer surrounded by ionic solution. This creates an ionic current through the pore and can also drive single-stranded DNA to thread through the pore. As the DNA passes through it temporarily blocks the current through the pore, so one can potentially characterize the DNA by looking at its current trace over time. Specifically, my lab works on engineering a new protein pore called MspA for this type of DNA analysis.