Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Environmental Testing Of Lasers For Jpl's Cold Atom Laboratory, Carey L. Baxter

STAR Program Research Presentations

NASA’s Cold Atom Lab (CAL) is a multi-user facility designed to study ultra-cold quantum gases in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station (ISS). One of the main goals of CAL is to explore the unknown territory of extremely low temperatures—possibly as low as the picokelvin range!—where new and fascinating quantum phenomena can be observed. At such temperatures matter stops behaving as particles and instead becomes macroscopic matter waves. CAL will be remotely controlled to perform a multitude of experiments and is scheduled to launch in 2016. In order to anticipate problems that might occur during and post-launch, including …

A Prototype Microwave Cavity Control Circuit For Use In Next Generation Free Electron Laser, Josh Thompson, Peter Neal Barrina, Jiayi Jiang, Joe Frisch, Steve Smith, Daniel Van Winkle

STAR Program Research Presentations

One of the current programs at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is the Linac Coherent Light Source, or LCLS. Using the existing hardware of the last third of their linear accelerator (or “linac”), SLAC has created one of the most energetic X-ray free electron lasers (or “FEL”). Since 2009, LCLS has used this FEL to perform a wide range of experiments across all sciences, most notably ultrafast filming at the molecular scale. As requests for beam-time with this laser increases, SLAC is purposing a linac upgrade to better match this demand. This upgrade, named LCLS-II, will replace existing copper radio frequency …

Does A Plastron Improve Heat Transfer?, Madani A. Khan, Jeffrey Alston, Andrew Guenthner

STAR Program Research Presentations

Superamphiphobic surfaces strongly repel both water and oils. In this work, aluminum coupons are processed by sanding with various grit of sand paper to impart microscale roughness. Subsequent submersion of the aluminum substrate in boiling water grows nanoscale grass-like structures. The oxide layer of Al is slightly soluble in water. During a fast diffusion/equilibrium, Al₂O₃ nanograss grows on the surface. A low energy coating is then deposited on the surface. The micro and nanoscale features create re-entrant structures that trap air enabling contact liquid to be in a Cassie-Baxter state. Superamphiphobicity of the samples were confirmed by …

Characterization Of Polarized Synchrotron Light, Britny N. Delp, Jeff Corbett

STAR Program Research Presentations

The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Light accelerates electrons around a 234-meter circumference ring at relativistic speeds. The x-ray radiation produced by this process is used in many fields of science ranging from materials science to medicine.

This project seeks to measure the polarization of the 532 nanometer wavelength component in the visible light beam emitted from the SPEAR-3 synchrotron as a function of vertical position. The beam was focused through a lens, then passed through a 532 nm band pass filter and a polarizer mounted on a rotating stand. The beam power was measured as a function of vertical position and …