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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Improvements To The Two-Point In Situ Method For Measurement Of The Room Constant And Sound Power In Semi-Reverberant Rooms, Zachary R. Jensen Mar 2016

Improvements To The Two-Point In Situ Method For Measurement Of The Room Constant And Sound Power In Semi-Reverberant Rooms, Zachary R. Jensen

Theses and Dissertations

The two-point in situ method is a technique for measuring the room constant of a semi-reverberant room and the sound power of a source in that room simultaneously using two measurement positions. Using a reference directivity source, where the directivity factor along any given axis of the source has been measured, one is able to use the Hopkins-Stryker equation to measure both the room constant and the sound power level of another source rather simply. Using both numerical and experimental data, it was found that by using generalized energy density (GED) as a measurement quantity, the results were more accurate …


Development, Evaluation, And Validation Of A High-Resolution Directivity Measurement System For Played Musical Instruments, K Joshua Bodon Mar 2016

Development, Evaluation, And Validation Of A High-Resolution Directivity Measurement System For Played Musical Instruments, K Joshua Bodon

Theses and Dissertations

A high-resolution directivity measurement system at Brigham Young University has been renovated and upgraded. Acoustical treatments have been installed on the microphone array, professional-grade audio hardware and cabling have been utilized, and user-friendly MATLAB processing and plotting codes have been developed. The directivities of 16 played musical instruments and several loudspeakers have been measured by the system, processed, and plotted. Using loudspeakers as simulated musicians, a comprehensive analysis was completed to validate the system and understand its error bounds. A comparison and evaluation of repeated-capture to single-capture spherical systems was made to demonstrate the high level of detail provided by …


Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance Of Silicon Vacancies In Sic: Predicting Resonance Of Cylindrical Cavities, Kyle Miller, John Colton Feb 2016

Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance Of Silicon Vacancies In Sic: Predicting Resonance Of Cylindrical Cavities, Kyle Miller, John Colton

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance is one method of performing Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) on a material. ESR is used to determine the electron spin lifetime of a material, an important parameter for use in quantum computing. Resonant cavities are conducting containers that are frequently used in ESR to create a strong magnetic field near the sample. As such it is valuable to design a resonant cavity and predict its resonant frequency. Cylindrical cavities modified with dielectric resonators (DRs) are viable for such experiments.


Exploring The Weak Mach Reflection Regime, Kevin Leete, Dr. Kent Gee Feb 2016

Exploring The Weak Mach Reflection Regime, Kevin Leete, Dr. Kent Gee

Journal of Undergraduate Research

When a shock wave reflects off a rigid surface with certain combinations of incident shock strength and angle, a Mach reflection can occur. This is when portions of the incident and reflected waves merge to create a stronger shock called a Mach stem that travels parallel to the reflecting surface. This phenomenon has been studied extensively for two extreme cases: large outdoor explosions and small, laboratory experiments of weak shocks. The purpose of this project was to design and execute an outdoor experiment where this phenomenon could be observed by microphones as well as high speed video imaging to detect …


Construction Of A 408 Nm Laser System For Use In Ion Interferometry, Lawrence Archibald Dec 2015

Construction Of A 408 Nm Laser System For Use In Ion Interferometry, Lawrence Archibald

Theses and Dissertations

This work reports on the construction of a 408 nm laser system designed to drive stimulated Raman transitions between the F = 4 and F = 5 2 S 1/2 states of 87 Sr + using the 2 P 3/2 state as the intermediate state. This laser system will be used as part of a 87 Sr + ion interferometer. This work also includes a discussion of relevant theory describing the interaction of the ions and laser, along with a calculation of the transition rates as a function of laser power and detuning.


Comparing Theory And Experiment For Analyte Transport In The First Vacuum Stage Of The Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer, Matthew R. Zachreson Jul 2015

Comparing Theory And Experiment For Analyte Transport In The First Vacuum Stage Of The Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer, Matthew R. Zachreson

Theses and Dissertations

The inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) has been used in laboratories for many years. The majority of the improvements to the instrument have been done empirically through trial and error. A few fluid models have been made, which have given a general description of the flow through the mass spectrometer interface. However, due to long mean free path effects and other factors, it is very difficult to simulate the flow details well enough to predict how changing the interface design will change the formation of the ion beam. Towards this end, Spencer et al. developed FENIX, a direct simulation …


A Feasibility Study Of Photometric Reverberation Mapping With Meter-Class Telescopes, Carla June Carroll Jun 2015

A Feasibility Study Of Photometric Reverberation Mapping With Meter-Class Telescopes, Carla June Carroll

Theses and Dissertations

For the past several decades, mass estimates for supermassive black holes hosted by active galactic nuclei (AGN) have been made with the reverberation mapping (RM) technique. This methodology has produced consistent results and has been used to establish several relations that link the characteristics of the host galaxy to the mass of the central black hole. Despite this success, there are less than 50 AGN with black hole masses derived from RM. This low number is generally attributed to the difficulties in coordinating large blocks of telescope time for making simultaneous photometric and spectroscopic observations. Spectroscopic observations also generally require …


Characterization Of Order-Disorder Phase Transition Temperature For Select Nanoparticles, Gregory J. Sutherland Jun 2015

Characterization Of Order-Disorder Phase Transition Temperature For Select Nanoparticles, Gregory J. Sutherland

Theses and Dissertations

A method was found for creating ordered nanoparticles whose size and theoretical order-disorder temperature are ideal for study in the TEM. Specifically FePt, NiPt, FeNiPt and AuCu nanoparticles were studied. We were able to show how a nanoparticle's size affects its order-disorder temperature (Tod). When the particles were around 6 nm in diameter there was a shift downward of the Tod of 10-15 percent compared to the bulk. While particles around 10 nm in diameter experienced a downward shift of 0-6 percent compared to the bulk. One can approximate that particles less than 10-15 nm in diameter would show significant …


Radio Emission Toward Regions Of Massive Star Formation In The Large Magellanic Cloud, Adam Johanson Mar 2015

Radio Emission Toward Regions Of Massive Star Formation In The Large Magellanic Cloud, Adam Johanson

Theses and Dissertations

Four regions of massive star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) were observed for water and methanol maser emission and radio continuum emission. A total of 42 radio detections were made including 27 new radio sources, four water masers, and eight compact HII regions. The lobes of a radio galaxy were resolved for the first time, and the host galaxy identified. Seven sources were associated with known massive young stellar objects (YSOs). A multi-wavelength analysis using both the infrared and radio spectrum was used to characterize the sources. Mid-infrared color-magnitude selection criteria for ultracompact HII (UCHII) regions in the …


Simulations Of Electron Trajectories In An Intense Laser Focus For Photon Scattering Experiments, Grayson J. Tarbox Mar 2015

Simulations Of Electron Trajectories In An Intense Laser Focus For Photon Scattering Experiments, Grayson J. Tarbox

Theses and Dissertations

An experiment currently underway at BYU is designed to test whether the size of a free electron wave packet affects the character of scattered radiation. Using a semi-classical argument wherein the wave packet is treated as a diffuse charge distribution, one would expect strong suppression of radiation in the direction perpendicular to the propagating field as the wave packet grows in size to be comparable to the wavelength of the driving field. If one disallows the interaction of the wave packet with itself, as is the case when calculating the rate of emission using QED, then regardless of size, the …


Instrument For Precision Long-Term Ss-Decay Rate Measurements, M. J. Ware, Scott D. Bergeson, J. E. Ellsworth, M. Groesbeck, J. E. Hansen, D. Pace, J. Peatross Jan 2015

Instrument For Precision Long-Term Ss-Decay Rate Measurements, M. J. Ware, Scott D. Bergeson, J. E. Ellsworth, M. Groesbeck, J. E. Hansen, D. Pace, J. Peatross

Faculty Publications

We describe an experimental setup for making precision measurements of relative ß-decay rates of 22Na, 36Cl, 54Mn, 60Co, 90Sr, 133Ba, 137Cs, 152Eu, and 154Eu. The radioactive samples are mounted in two automated sample changers that sequentially position the samples with high spatial precision in front of sets of detectors. The set of detectors for one sample changer consists of four Geiger-Müller (GM) tubes and the other set of detectors consists of two NaI scintillators. The statistical uncertainty in the count rate is few times 0.01% per day for the GM …


Algebraic Semi-Classical Model For Reaction Dynamics, Tim Glenn Wendler Dec 2014

Algebraic Semi-Classical Model For Reaction Dynamics, Tim Glenn Wendler

Theses and Dissertations

We use an algebraic method to model the molecular collision dynamics of a collinear triatomic system. Beginning with a forced oscillator, we develop a mathematical framework upon which inelastic and reactive collisions are modeled. The model is considered algebraic because it takes advantage of the properties of a Lie algebra in the derivation of a time-evolution operator. The time-evolution operator is shown to generate both phase-space and quantum dynamics of a forced oscillator simultaneously. The model is considered semi-classical because only the molecule's internal degrees-of-freedom are quantized. The relative translation between the colliding atom and molecule in an exchange reaction …


Towards Stronger Coulomb Coupling In An Ultracold Neutral Plasma, Mary Elizabeth Lyon Jul 2014

Towards Stronger Coulomb Coupling In An Ultracold Neutral Plasma, Mary Elizabeth Lyon

Theses and Dissertations

Ultracold neutral plasmas are created by photoionizing laser-cooled atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). Due to their large electrical potential energies and comparatively small kinetic energies, ultracold plasmas fall into a regime of plasma systems which are called “strongly coupled.” A priority in the field of ultracold plasmas is to generate plasmas with higher values of the strong coupling parameter Γ, which is given as the ratio of the nearest-neighbor Coulomb potential energy to the average kinetic energy. The equilibrium strong coupling in ultracold plasmas is limited by the ultrafast relaxation of the ions due to spatial disorder in the …


Investigation Of A New Method Of Estimating Acoustic Intensity And Its Application To Rocket Noise, Benjamin Young Christensen Jul 2014

Investigation Of A New Method Of Estimating Acoustic Intensity And Its Application To Rocket Noise, Benjamin Young Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

An alternative pressure-sensor based method for estimating the acoustic intensity, the phase and amplitude gradient estimation (PAGE) method, is presented. This method is similar to the finite-difference p-p (FD) method, in which the intensity is estimated from pressure measurements made using an array of closely spaced microphones. The PAGE method uses the same hardware as the FD method, but does not suffer from the frequency-dependent bias inherent to the FD method. Detailed derivations of the new method and the traditional FD method are presented. Both methods are then compared using two acoustic fields: a plane wave and a three monopole …


Application Of An Isogeometric Boundary Element Method To The Calculation Of Acoustic Radiation Modes And Their Efficiencies, Candice Marie Humpherys Jun 2014

Application Of An Isogeometric Boundary Element Method To The Calculation Of Acoustic Radiation Modes And Their Efficiencies, Candice Marie Humpherys

Theses and Dissertations

In contrast to the structural modes, which describe the physical motion of vibrating structures, acoustic radiation modes describe the radiated sound power. Radiation modes are beneficial in active noise control because reducing an efficiently radiating radiation mode guarantees the reduction of radiated sound power. Much work has been done to calculate the radiation modes for simple geometries, where analytic solutions are available. In this work, isogeometric analysis (IGA) is used to provide a tool capable of analyzing the radiation modes of arbitrarily complex geometries. IGA offers increased accuracy and efficiency by using basis functions generated from Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) …


Spin And Orbital Moments And Magnetic Order In Fe3o4 Nanoparticle Assemblies, Yanping Cai Mar 2014

Spin And Orbital Moments And Magnetic Order In Fe3o4 Nanoparticle Assemblies, Yanping Cai

Theses and Dissertations

Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles of 5 to 11 nm in size were prepared by organic methods. Particle size was analyzed by both X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) techniques. Zero Field Cooling (ZFC) / Field Cooling (FC) and magnetization loop measurements were recorded by VSM, and they confirmed superparamagnetic behavior in the sample. The blocking temperature is found to be in the range of 30 K ~ 170 K. It has a dependence on the particle size. ZFC / FC curves also indicate the presence of magnetic coupling between particles. X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism (XMCD) measurements of these nanoparticles …


Estimating The Acoustic Power Of Sources In Nonideal Enclosures Using Generalized Acoustic Energy Density, Daniel Ryan Marquez Mar 2014

Estimating The Acoustic Power Of Sources In Nonideal Enclosures Using Generalized Acoustic Energy Density, Daniel Ryan Marquez

Theses and Dissertations

Sound power measurements of acoustic sources are generally made in reverberation or anechoic chambers using acoustic pressure measurements as outlined in specific ISO or other standards. A reverberation chamber produces an approximate diffuse-field condition, wherein the sound power is determined from the spatially averaged squared pressure. An anechoic chamber produces an approximate free-field condition, wherein the sound power is estimated from squared pressure over an enveloping measurement surface. However, in many cases it is desirable to estimate sound power within nonideal semi-reverberant spaces. In these environments, both direct and reverberant energies may contribute significantly to the total acoustic field. This …


Development And Validation Of An Automated Directivity Acquisition System Used In The Acquisition, Processing, And Presentation Of The Acoustic Far-Field Directivity Of Musical Instruments In An Anechoic Space, Nicholas J. Eyring Dec 2013

Development And Validation Of An Automated Directivity Acquisition System Used In The Acquisition, Processing, And Presentation Of The Acoustic Far-Field Directivity Of Musical Instruments In An Anechoic Space, Nicholas J. Eyring

Theses and Dissertations

A high spatial resolution acoustic directivity acquisition system (ADAS) has been developed to acquire anechoic measurements of the far field radiation of musical instruments that are either remote controlled or played by musicians. Building upon work performed by the BYU Acoustic Research Group in the characterization of loudspeaker directivity, one can rotate a musical instrument with sequential azimuthal angle increments under a fixed semicircular array of microphones while recording repeated notes or sequences of notes. This results in highly detailed and instructive directivity data presented in the form of high-resolution balloon plots. The directivity data and corresponding balloon plots may …


Analyses Of Nonlinearity Measures In High-Amplitude Sound Propagation, Michael B. Muhlestein Jul 2013

Analyses Of Nonlinearity Measures In High-Amplitude Sound Propagation, Michael B. Muhlestein

Theses and Dissertations

Military aircraft generate high-amplitude noise which can cause injury to attending personnel. Efforts to mitigate the effects of this noise require a detailed understanding of the propagation of the noise, which was shown previously to be nonlinear. This thesis presents an analysis of high-amplitude noise propagation, emphasizing measures used to quantify the importance of considering nonlinearity. Two measures of the importance of nonlinearity are compared. These measures are the wave steepening factor and a skewness estimate. The wave steepening factor is a measure of how much nonlinear waveform steepening has occurred in a waveform. The skewness estimate is the skewness …


Characterization Of Ingaas Quantum Dot Chains, Tyler Drue Park Jul 2013

Characterization Of Ingaas Quantum Dot Chains, Tyler Drue Park

Theses and Dissertations

InGaAs quantum dot chains were grown with a low-temperature variation of the Stranski-Krastanov method, the conventional epitaxial method. This new method seeks to reduce indium segregation and intermixing in addition to giving greater control in the growth process. We used photoluminescence spectroscopy techniques to characterize the quality and electronic structure of these samples. We have recently used a transmission electron microscope to show how the quantum dots vary with annealing temperature. Some questions relating to the morphology of the samples cannot be answered by photoluminescence spectroscopy alone. Using transmission electron microscopy, we verified flattening of the quantum dots with annealing …


Simulation Of 810 Nm Light Propagation Through The Human Finger For Non-Invasive Blood Analysis, Nichole Millward Maughan Jun 2013

Simulation Of 810 Nm Light Propagation Through The Human Finger For Non-Invasive Blood Analysis, Nichole Millward Maughan

Theses and Dissertations

Non-invasive blood analysis devices that can measure characteristics less prominent than the oxygenation of hemoglobin are of interest in the medical community. An important step in creating these devices is to model the interaction of photons with human tissue in increasingly greater physiological detail. We have modeled, using a Monte Carlo technique, the interaction of photons through epidermis, blood and water arranged both in layers and in a homogeneous mixture. We confirm the expected linear relation between photon attenuation and material volumetric percentage in our two-layer models. We discovered that this relationship becomes non-linear in the homogeneously mixed models where …


Cluster Expansion Models Via Bayesian Compressive Sensing, Lance Jacob Nelson May 2013

Cluster Expansion Models Via Bayesian Compressive Sensing, Lance Jacob Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

The steady march of new technology depends crucially on our ability to discover and design new, advanced materials. Partially due to increases in computing power, computational methods are now having an increased role in this discovery process. Advances in this area speed the discovery and development of advanced materials by guiding experimental work down fruitful paths. Density functional theory (DFT)has proven to be a highly accurate tool for computing material properties. However, due to its computational cost and complexity, DFT is unsuited to performing exhaustive searches over many candidate materials or for extracting thermodynamic information. To perform these types of …


Experimental Analysis Of Energy-Based Acoustic Arrays For Measurement Of Rocket Noise Fields, Jarom Henry Giraud Mar 2013

Experimental Analysis Of Energy-Based Acoustic Arrays For Measurement Of Rocket Noise Fields, Jarom Henry Giraud

Theses and Dissertations

Microphone arrays are useful for measuring acoustic energy quantities (e.g. acoustic intensity) in the near-field of a full-scale solid rocket motor. Proper characterization of a rocket plume as a noise source will allow for more accurate predictions in engineering models that design for protection of structures, payloads and personnel near the rockets. Acoustic intensity and energy density quantities were measured in three rocket noise fields and have shown that the apparent source region of the rocket becomes smaller and moves upstream as frequency increases. Theoretical results accounting for some scattering and finite-difference errors arising in these types of energy-based measurements …


Investigation Of Low-Stress Silicon Nitride As A Replacement Material For Beryllium X-Ray Windows, David B. Brough Dec 2012

Investigation Of Low-Stress Silicon Nitride As A Replacement Material For Beryllium X-Ray Windows, David B. Brough

Theses and Dissertations

The material properties of low stress silicon nitride make it a possible replacement material for beryllium in X-ray windows. In this study, X-ray windows made of LPCVD deposited low stress silicon nitride are fabricated and characterized. The Young's modulus of the LPCVD low stress silicon nitride are characterized and found to be 226±23 GPa. The residual stress is characterized using two different methods and is found to be 127±25 MPa and 141±0.28 MPa. Two support structure geometries for the low stress silicon nitride X-ray windows are used. X-ray windows with thicknesses of 100 nm and 200 nm are suspended on …


Thin Films Of Carbon Nanotubes And Nanotube/Polymer Composites, Anthony D. Willey Dec 2012

Thin Films Of Carbon Nanotubes And Nanotube/Polymer Composites, Anthony D. Willey

Theses and Dissertations

A method is described for ultrasonically spraying thin films of carbon nanotubes that have been suspended in organic solvents. Nanotubes were sonicated in N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone or N-Cyclohexyl-2-pyrrolidone and then sprayed onto a heated substrate using an ultrasonic spray nozzle. The solvent quickly evaporated, leaving a thin film of randomly oriented nanotubes. Film thickness was controlled by the spray time and ranged between 200-500 nm, with RMS roughness of about 40 nm. Also described is a method for creating thin (300 nm) conductive freestanding nanotube/polymer composite films by infiltrating sprayed nanotube films with polyimide.


Comparing Theory And Experiment For Analyte Transport In The First Vacuum Stage Of The Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer, Matthew R. Zachreson Dec 2012

Comparing Theory And Experiment For Analyte Transport In The First Vacuum Stage Of The Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer, Matthew R. Zachreson

Theses and Dissertations

The Direct Simulation Monte Carlo algorithm as coded in FENIX is used to model the transport of trace ions in the first vacuum stage of the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer. Haibin Ma of the Farnsworth group at Brigham Young University measured two radial trace density profiles: one 0.7 mm upstream of the sampling cone and the other 10 mm downstream. We compare simulation results from FENIX with the experimental results. We find that gas dynamic convection and diffusion are unable to account for the experimentally-measured profile changes from upstream to downstream. Including discharge quenching and ambipolar electric fields, however, …


Modeling Radial Bernstein Modes In A Finite-Length Axisymmetric Non-Neutral Plasma, Mark Andrew Hutchison Dec 2012

Modeling Radial Bernstein Modes In A Finite-Length Axisymmetric Non-Neutral Plasma, Mark Andrew Hutchison

Theses and Dissertations

Axisymmetric radial Bernstein modes are known to exist in non-neutral plasmas and have been studied theoretically and computationally in 1D, but detection of these modes has still proven to be difficult due to self-shielding. To help advance the work on this front we created a 2D particle-in-cell (PIC) code that simulates a non-neutral plasma in a Malmberg-Penning trap. A detailed description of the PIC code itself has been included that highlights the benefits of using an $r^2$--$z$ grid and how it can be tested. The focus of the PIC simulation was to discover how best to drive and detect these …


Advanced Numerical Methods In General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamics, Michael J. Besselman Dec 2012

Advanced Numerical Methods In General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamics, Michael J. Besselman

Theses and Dissertations

We show our work to refine the process of evolutions in general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics. We investigate several areas in order to improve the overall accuracy of our results. We test several versions of conversion methodologies between different sets of variables. We compare both single equation and two equations solvers to do the conversion. We find no significant improvement for multiple equation conversion solvers when compared to single equation solvers. We also investigate the construction of initial data and the conversion of coordinate systems between initial data code and evolution code. In addition to the conversion work, we have improved some …


Researching Effective Methods For Teaching The Phases Of The Moon, Heather Patti Jones Dec 2012

Researching Effective Methods For Teaching The Phases Of The Moon, Heather Patti Jones

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the effectiveness of commonly used instructional methods for teaching the phases of the Moon to fifth and sixth grade students. The instructional methods investigated were the use of diagrams, animations, and models. The effectiveness of each method was tested by measuring students' understanding of Moon phases with a pre and post-assessment after receiving instruction with a specific method or combination of methods. These methods were then evaluated for their ability to help students learn essential concepts, reinforce relevant vocabulary and discourage misconceptions. Results showed that students had better scores with less prevalence of misconception when they were …


Long-Lived Electron Spins In A Modulation Doped (100) Gaas Quantum Well, John S. Colton, D. Meyer, K Clark, D. Craft, J. Cutler, T. Park, P. White Oct 2012

Long-Lived Electron Spins In A Modulation Doped (100) Gaas Quantum Well, John S. Colton, D. Meyer, K Clark, D. Craft, J. Cutler, T. Park, P. White

Faculty Publications

We have measured T1 spin lifetimes of a 14 nm modulation-doped (100) GaAs quantum well using a time-resolved pump-probe Kerr rotation technique. The quantum well was selected by tuning the wavelength of the probe laser. T1 lifetimes in excess of 1 Us were measured at 1.5 K and 5.5 T, exceeding the typical T2 lifetimes that have been measured in GaAs and II-VI quantum wells by orders of magnitude. We observed effects from nuclear polarization, which were largely removable by simultaneous nuclear magnetic resonance, along with two distinct lifetimes under some conditions that likely result from probing two differently localized …