Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2007 Joint Fall Meeting of the Texas Sections of the APS and AAPT; Zone 13 of SPS
Volume 52, Number 16
Thursday–Saturday, October 18–20, 2007; College Station, Texas
Session J7: SPS: SPS Outreach Education and Student Research |
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Chair: Bhaskar Dutta, Texas A&M University Room: Rudder Tower 301 |
Saturday, October 20, 2007 10:40AM - 10:52AM |
J7.00001: Low Level Measurements using the Van der Pauw Technique Marshall Preas, Kunal Bhatnagar, Alexy Volkov, Toni Sauncy As part of the MANDE NSF REU program[1], this project aimed at developing a system to be used for determining electrical resistance in a bulk material or thin film. While a standard two probe technique is sufficient for some low-resistivity samples, the four probe Van der Pauw method is preferred for the materials we wish to study. An automated data acquisition system with geometric corrections was designed utilizing a suite of meters and sources and utilizing LabVIEW$^{TM}$ programming software and GPIB interfacing techniques. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 20, 2007 10:52AM - 11:04AM |
J7.00002: Plasmas via computer simulations Victor Bautista, Andrew Wallace One of the behaviors of plasma is that they sometimes act like a collection of individual particles. Our purpose was to study how one charged particle in plasma behaves in a self-consistent electric field and external uniform magnetic field. We did this by setting up a self-consistent algorithm that given initial position and velocity coordinates of an ion, calculates the electric field and Lorentz force on the ion. This force changes the velocity and coordinates of the ion. These new coordinates are used to calculate a new electric field and update the Lorentz force. New coordinates are calculated and this algorithm is repeated. Results were then plotted for several initial conditions. Both synchronous motion and chaotic motion were found for particular values of magnetic field. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 20, 2007 11:04AM - 11:16AM |
J7.00003: Preliminary results of porous silicon synthesis by a non-contact method Kristin Peterson, Toni Sauncy, Tim Dallas, Mark Grimson The goal of this work is to produce porous silicon (p-Si) thin films on n-type and p-type crystalline Si substrates with various dopant types by using a light-induced hydrofluoric acid (HF) synthesis technique. The samples were treated using an expanded beam of a He-Ne laser to produce a localized electric field on bulk crystalline silicon while the samples were immersed in hydro-fluoric acid for varying amounts of time. Samples are now being analyzed by photoluminescence spectroscopy to determine if there is visible light emission, which is characteristic of p-Si. In addition, pore size was estimated by examining SEM micrographs, which indicate pore wall thicknesses on the order of one micron, with a typical pore size of two microns or less. The physical structure and size of the porous regions were found to vary with the concentration and dopant type of the crystalline Si wafer. In contrast to previous published reports, only the side of the sample illuminated with the He-Ne beam during HF synthesis was found to produce the porous thin film. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 20, 2007 11:16AM - 11:28AM |
J7.00004: The Society of Physics Students Summer Internship Program Meagan Saldua, Kendra Rand, Jessica Clark The Society of Physics Students (SPS) National Office provides internships to undergraduate physics students from around the nation. The focus of these internships ranges from advanced research to outreach programs, including positions with the SPS National Office, the APS, the AAPT, NASA or NIST. I will present my ``D.C.'' experience as a first-time intern and my work at the American Center for Physics in College Park, MD. My position with the APS was in the PhysicsQuest program, where I focused on developing educational kits for middle school classrooms. These kits are made available to teachers at no charge to provide resources and positive experiences in physics for students. The impact of the internship program as well as the theme and experiments of this year's PhysicsQuest kits will be detailed. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 20, 2007 11:28AM - 11:40AM |
J7.00005: Calibration and Alignment of a High Resolution Spectrometer for FRXL and RSX Plasma Experiments Jennifer Hendryx, Glen Wurden, Leonid Dorf, Thomas Intrator, Xuan Sun Measurements of ion temperature and plasma flow are important for better understanding of laboratory plasmas. Plasmas are the key to production of nuclear fusion, and plasma diagnostics are essential for experimental plasma studies. Spectroscopy in particular is useful in analyzing plasma temperature, flow, and impurity content. It utilizes spectral lines' widths, intensities, and locations in the spectrum to determine elements present in the plasma, as well as line shifting and broadening that occur, for example, due to ion thermal motion---Doppler broadening. I assembled and calibrated a 0.5 meter ARC VM505 spectrometer, combined with a 1024x1024 element gated intensified PI-MAX camera as a detector, to view plasma light from the RSX and FRX-L experiments in the P-24 Plasma Physics group. With a 1200 line/mm grating, the resolution FWHM is 0.03 nm, and I was initially able to collect data looking at the 486.1 nm deuterium beta line. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 20, 2007 11:40AM - 11:52AM |
J7.00006: Angelo State Physics Peer Pressure Team: Road Tour 2007 James Matthews, Toni Sauncy The Angelo State University Society of Physics Students chapter has a strong history of science outreach to the local community. For the second year, the outreach team has undertaken a week-long trip visiting middle school teachers and children and presenting physics demonstrations in the greater West Texas region. The goal of the outreach program is to informally educate and excite students about physics and science in general. The demonstrations vary from simple hands on demonstrations to more complicated experiments that most public school science teachers do not have resources to present. Each presentation engages student volunteers to help out with some of the demonstrations. Many of the demonstrations are based around concepts of static and dynamic pressure and how it affects our everyday life. The results have been overwhelming as the subsequent requests for further visits are too numerous for us to accommodate. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 20, 2007 11:52AM - 12:04PM |
J7.00007: Exoplanets, Pov-Ray, and E.T. Billy Quarles No Abstract. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 20, 2007 12:04PM - 12:16PM |
J7.00008: Photometry of the Minor Planet 349Dembowska Kittikul Kovitanggoon No Abstract. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 20, 2007 12:16PM - 12:28PM |
J7.00009: Flywheel Energy Storage Systems Ayrric Jones No Abstract. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 20, 2007 12:28PM - 12:40PM |
J7.00010: Using Fourier Coefficients to Determine Metallicity of RR Lyrae Stars Pamela Vo Fourier decompositions were performed on the light curves of RR Lyrae stars observed using the Michigan State Observatory telescope and SDSS' Apache Point telescope. The relationship between metallicity and Fourier coefficients was then examined in the g' filter. [Preview Abstract] |
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