Engineering Physics Commons^™

Effect Of Adding Nano Silica On Some Structural And Thermal Properties Of Aluminum, Salih Y. Darweesh, Ghazi F. Mahal

Al-Bahir

The powder metallurgy method was employed to fabricate aluminum-based composite samples reinforced with nano silica at varying weight fractions of 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 wt.%. The powders were mixed, dried, and compacted using a hydraulic press at 7 tons of pressure for one minute, followed by thermal sintering in an oven at 600°C for two hours. Structural characterization was conducted using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), while thermal analysis included thermal conductivity, heat capacity, thermal diffusivity, thermal flux, and thermal resistance. The results revealed that the optimal nano silica reinforcement ratio was 10%, yielding notably …

Skyforge Core: A Triple Modular Redundant Computing Architecture For Small Satellites, Peter Staritz, Harrison Schmitt, Thomas Mcwatters, Ethan Hoyt, Josh Ellman, Sameer Sikander, Nate Westrum, Jordan Clark, Taebaeksanmaek Jung, Micah Williams, Lauren Myers, Kelden Wright, Matthew Homburg, Alex Roth, Jinran Zhang

Physics & Engineering Student Papers

As small satellite missions grow in complexity, there is increasing demand for greater onboard computational performance. Traditional radiation-hardened processors, while reliable, are expensive, slow, and suffer from long procurement timelines. In contrast, commercial off-the-shelf processors like the Raspberry Pi offer high performance at low cost but are vulnerable to radiation-induced faults such as single-event upsets. SkyForge Core is an experimental computing system that addresses this challenge by integrating three Raspberry Pi Zero W units into a triple modular redundant architecture. The system executes identical tasks on each Pi, compares outputs using majority voting, and identifies discrepancies. If a failure occurs, …

High-Latitude Ionospheric Irregularities Characterized Through Machine Learning Methods, Anna-Marie Bals

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This study uses Machine Learning and data-driven techniques to understand plasma irregularities in high-latitude regions better. By combining observations and recent findings from modeling, the goal is to identify and classify scintillation signatures caused by different types of irregularities in the ionosphere. The focus is on irregularities from electron precipitation in the auroral oval and ExB drifts in the polar cap. Using Machine Learning tools, the study aims to distinguish between different scintillation signatures and link them to their sources, improving our ability to detect and characterize these events. Using multiple instruments and advanced filtering, the aim is to enhance …

Contaminated Sweeping Langmuir Probes On Sounding Rocket Platforms, Rachel Conway

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Sweeping Langmuir Probes (SLPs) are one of the most commonly used probes on sounding rocket missions. They offer measurements of plasma density, electron temperature, and both relative and absolute payload charging. One of the major implementation challenges, however, is contamination on the surface of the probe such that collected IV curves become distorted. This distortion can result in deflated densities, inflated temperatures, and erroneous charging measurements. This dissertation aims to expand our understanding of contamination's impact on SLP data and offer new mitigation methods appropriate for the sounding rocket platform.

SPICE, Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis, is used to …

Josephson Junctions: Fabrication And Applications For The Axion Dark Matter Experiment, Jonah M. Sachs

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

The observation of axions could revolutionize the world of physics. Through microwave frequency cavity readout of the photons associated with these axions, the ADMX project at WashU utilizes multiple different forms of the Josephson junction (JJ), a superconductive circuit element. The physics behind the JJ are essential to understanding its operation for resonant cavity readout in addition to parametric amplification. Parametric amplifiers produced using JJs can approach the signal-to-noise ratio set by quantum mechanics, and prove essential for the amplification chain used by the ADMX experiment for axionic detection. The limits of these amplifiers are set by the noise tuning …

Correlating Aerosol Morphology And Optical Properties With Image Blur: An Investigation Of Aerosol-Induced Image Degradation, Patricia A. Byrd

Theses and Dissertations

Small-angle scattering by relatively large cloud/fog droplets and ice crystals is known to degrade imagery. However, it is not well investigated how much of an impact aerosols, especially the prevalent anthropogenic fine/ultra-fine/coarse particles, have in image degradation. This thesis explores the contribution of aerosols to image blur but focuses on collecting field data with a relatively large variety of ambient aerosol characterization and optical instrumentation. Field experiments were conducted over six days, correlating aerosol measurements (particle counters and nephelometer) with image quality from a visible camera along a 450m path. Image blur was quantified using the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF), …

Absence Of Tev Halos Around Millisecond Pulsars, A. U. Abeysekara, R. Alfaro, C. Alvarez, J. C. Arteaga-Velázquez, D. Avila Rojas, H. A. Ayala Solares, R. Babu, E. Belmont-Moreno, A. Bernal, K. S. Caballero-Mora, T. Capistrán, A. Carramiñana, S. Casanova, U. Cotti, J. Cotzomi, S. Coutiño De León, E. De La Fuente, D. Depaoli, P. Desiati, N. Di Lalla, R. Diaz Hernandez, M. A. Duvernois, J. C. Diaz-Velez, K. Engel, T. Ergin, K. L. Fan, K. Fang, N. Fraija, S. Fraija, J. A. Garcia-Gonzalez, F. Garfias, M. M. Gonzalez, J. A. Goodman, J. P. Harding, S. Hernandez-Cadena, D. Huang, F. Hueyotl-Zahuantitla, A. Iriarte, S. Kaufmann, D. Kieda, A. Lara, J. Lee, H. Leon Vargas, J. T. Linnemann, A. L. Longinotti, G. Luis-Raya, K. Malone, O. Martinez, J. Martinez-Castro, J. A. Matthews, P. Miranda-Romagnoli, J. A. Morales-Soto, E. Moreno, M. Mostafa, M. Najafi, L. Nellen, M. Newbold, M. U. Nisa, R. Noriega-Papaqui, N. Omodei, Y. Perez Araujo, E. G. Perez-Perez, C. D. Rho, D. Rosa-Gonzalez, E. Ruiz-Velasco, M. A. Roth, H. Salazar, A. Sandoval, J. Serna-Franco, Y. Son, R. W. Springer, O. Tibolla, K. Tollefson, I. Torres, R. Torres-Escobedo, R. Turner, F. Urena-Mena, E. Varela, L. Villasenor, Xiaojie Wang, Z. Wang, I. J. Watson, H. Wu, S. Yu

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

TeV halos are extended very-high-energy (VHE; 0.1-100 TeV) gamma-ray emission around middle-aged pulsars. So far, they have only been found around isolated pulsars, but it has been suggested that they may also be powered by millisecond pulsars (MSPs). We searched for VHE gamma-ray emission from MSPs reported by radio and GeV gamma-ray observatories in 2565 days of data from the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory. We found no significant emission from individual pulsars. By combining the likelihood profiles of all MSPs accessible to HAWC, our analysis suggests that the excess emission around the MSP population is consistent with a background. …

Study Of Long-Term Spectral Evolution And X-Ray And Γ-Ray Correlation Of Blazars Seen By Hawc, R. Alfaro, C. Alvarez, A. Andrés, J. C. Arteaga-Velázquez, D. Avila Rojas, H. A.Ayala Solares, R. Babu, E. Belmont-Moreno, A. Bernal, K. S. Caballero-Mora, T. Capistrán, A. Carramiñana, F. Carreón, S. Casanova, U. Cotti, J. Cotzomi, S. Coutiño De León, E. De La Fuente, D. Depaoli, N. Di Lalla, R. Diaz Hernandez, B. L. Dingus, M. A. Duvernois, M. Durocher, J. C. Diaz-Velez, K. Engel, C. Espinoza, K. L. Fan, N. Fraija, S. Fraija, J. A. Garcia-Gonzalez, F. Garfias, A. Gonzalez Munoz, M. M. Gonzalez, J. A. Goodman, S. Groetsch, J. P. Harding, S. Hernandez-Cadena, I. Herzog, D. Huang, F. Hueyotl-Zahuantitla, A. Iriarte, V. Joshi, S. Kaufman, D. Kieda, A. Lara, W. H. Lee, J. Lee, H. Leon Vargas, J. T. Linnemann, A. L. Longinotti, G. Luis-Raya, K. Malone, O. Martinez, I. Martinez-Castellanos, J. Martinez-Castro, J. A. Matthews, P. Miranda-Romagnoli, J. A. Montes, E. Moreno, M. Mostafa, A. Nayerhoda, L. Nellen, M. U. Nisa, R. Noriega-Papaqui, N. Omodei, M. Osorio, Y. Perez Araujo, E. G. Perez-Perez, C. D. Rho, D. Rosa-Gonzalez, E. Ruiz-Velasco, H. Salazar, D. Salazar-Gallegos, A. Sandoval, M. Schneider, M. Serna-Franco, A. J. Smith, Y. Son, R. W. Springer, O. Tibolla, K. Tollefson, I. Torres, R. Torres-Escobedo, R. Turner, F. Urena-Mena, E. Varela, L. Villasenor, Xiaojie Wang, I. J. Watson, K. Whitaker, E. Willox, S. Yun-Carcamo, H. Zhou

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

The HAWC Observatory collected 6 yr of extensive data, providing an ideal platform for long-term monitoring of blazars in the very high energy (VHE) band, without bias toward specific flux states. HAWC continuously monitors blazar activity at TeV energies, focusing on sources with a redshift of z ≤ 0.3, based on the Third Fermi-LAT Catalog of High-Energy sources. We specifically focused our analysis on Mrk 421 and Mrk 501, as they are the brightest blazars observed by the HAWC Observatory. With a data set of 2143 days, this work significantly extends the monitoring previously published, which was based on 511 …

Silver-Alloyed Cigs Thin-Film Solar Cells On Flexible Stainless-Steel Substrate, Zhi Huang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Our dissertation demonstrates the optimization of ACIGS (Ag-Cu-In-Ga-Se) thin-film solar cells, achieving an efficiency of 20.4% through the combined effects of silver incorporation and alkali metal post-deposition treatment (PDT). The incorporation of 2.8% Ag into the CIGS lattice enhanced crystal quality, reduced disorder, and widened the bandgap by 0.103 eV, as evidenced by a significant reduction in Urbach energy. These improvements resulted in stronger light absorption, increased carrier generation, and enhanced photovoltaic parameters, including a short-circuit current density Jsc of 35.31 mA/cm², an open-circuit voltage Voc of 0.74 V, and a fill factor (FF) of 75.8%. PDT using rubidium fluoride …

Novel Approach For The Micro Cracks Detection Of Solar Wafers And Cells, Mohd Israil, Arvind Kumar Sharma, Ekta Gupta

Al-Bahir

This paper deals with the review of various existing technique for the microcracks detection in silicon solar cell and wafer. In addition to this, we proposed a novel approach for the machine learning technique for the inspection of the cracks those are existed in the solar cell and wafer and not able to detect by the naked eyes. There are many techniques have been developed by the various researchers around the world to inspect solar cells for defect. All the techniques discussed in this article having some features and some weakness too. This paper present here gives the two-fold solution …

Detection Of Extended X-Ray Emission Around The Pevatron Microquasar V4641 Sgr With Xrism, Hiromasa Suzuki, Naomi Tsuji, Yoshiaki Kanemaru, Megumi Shidatsu, Laura Olivera-Nieto, Samar Safi-Harb, Shigeo S. Kimura, Eduardo De La Fuente, Sabrina Casanova, Kaya Mori, Xiaojie Wang, Sei Kato, Dai Tateishi, Hideki Uchiyama, Takaaki Tanaka, Hiroyuki Uchida, Shun Inoue, Dezhi Huang

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

A recent report on the detection of very-high-energy gamma rays from V4641 Sagittarii (V4641 Sgr) up to ≈0.8 PeV has made it the second confirmed "PeVatron" microquasar. Here we report on the observation of V4641 Sgr with X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) in 2024 September. Thanks to the large field of view and low background, the CCD imager Xtend successfully detected for the first time X-ray extended emission around V4641 Sgr with a significance of ≳4.5σ and >10σ based on our imaging and spectral analysis, respectively. The spatial extent is estimated to have a radius of 7′ ± 3′ …

Low-Charge, High-Resolution Beamline Preparation For The Nanopatterned Microbunching Experiment At Argonne Wakefield Accelerator, R. Margraf-O'Neal, A. Ody, J. Power, J. Hlavenka, B. N. Temizel Ozdemir, G. Andonian, B. Carlsten, A. Desimone, G. Ha, A. Halavanau, H. Xu, N. Majernik, J. M. Maxson, A. Parrack, R. Ryne, M. Yadav, N. Yampolsky, J. Rosenzweig

Physics Faculty Publications

The emittance exchange (EEX) beamline at the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA) is designed to transfer properties of an electron beam phase space between the transverse and longitudinal planes. Recently, it has been proposed this beamline could be used to convert a microscale transverse modulation created by a TEM grid into a microbunch train in the longitudinal plane. Such a technique would be useful for obtaining nano-scale microbunching that does not rely on the sensitive process of FEL gain. This new approach has been proposed to enable development of a compact free-electron laser at Arizona State, greatly reducing size and cost …

Design Of A Shipping Fixture For A Compact Cryomodule Hermetic Assembly, J. Lewis, G. Ciovati, N. Huque, J. Armstrong, K. Harding

Physics Faculty Publications

Two conduction-cooled 915 MHz superconducting radio frequency hermetic assemblies must be safely transported from the Jefferson Lab in Newport News, VA to General Atomics in San Diego, CA for performance testing in a custom horizontal test cryostat. One hermetic assembly consists of a 2-cell 915 MHz cavity, a coaxial fundamental power coupler, and the warm-to-cold transition beam tubes. The second hermetic assembly consists of a 2-cell 915 MHz cavity only. The assemblies will be transported on a flatbed air-ride trailer over the approximate 4000 km distance. Design requirements included adequate attenuation of 4g vertical axis, 5g beamline axis, and 1.5g …

Effect Of Reduction Annealing On The Structural And Electrical Properties Of Α-Moo3 Thin Films, Sandipani Ghosh

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

2D layered molybdenum oxide has attracted significant research interest due to its tuneable bandgap and diverse structural, chemical, electrical, and optical properties influenced by growth parameters and synthesis techniques. In this study, the effects of reduction annealing on the structural and electrical properties of few-layer MoO₃ thin films, deposited on Si/SiO₂ substrates via pulsed laser deposition, were investigated. X-ray diffraction revealed nanocrystalline structures with a preferred (020) orientation, reduction annealing produced highly crystalline orthorhombic α-MoO₃ with reduced unit cell volume. FESEM/EDS provided detailed analyses of microstructures and elemental compositions. Raman spectroscopy confirmed the orthorhombic structure, with characteristic peaks at 667, …

Polarized Positrons At Ce⁺Baf, A. Ushakov, J. Benesch, M. Bruker, L. Cardman, J. Conway, S. Covrig Dusa, P. Degtiarenko, Y. Enomoto, S. Gessner, P. Ghoshal, S. Gopinath, J. Grames, C. Gulliford, S. Habet, G. Hays, C. Hernández-García, A. Hofler, R. Kazimi, M. Kostin, V. O. Kostroun, F. Lin, V. Lizárraga-Rubio, K. Mahler, Y. Morikawa, S. Nagaitsev, S. Ogur, G. Palacios-Serrano, N. Raut, B. Rimmer, Y. Roblin, A. Seryi, K. Smolenski, M. Stutzman, R. Suleiman, A. Sy, N. Taylor, D. Turner, A. Ushakov, C. Valerio-Lizarraga, E. Voutier, S. Wang, Y. Zhang

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

A baseline concept for a continuous wave (CW) polarized positron injector was developed for the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at Jefferson Lab [1]. This concept is based on positron beam generation by a high current polarized electron beam (1 mA, 120 MeV, >85% polarization) irradiating a rotating water-cooled tungsten target or liquid metal target. The update on the development of the Ce⁺BAF injector concept including the polarized electron source, the development of high power targets, simulations of positron capture, the design of the transport line from the positron injector to the CEBAF North Linac and the planned experiment …

Optimal Manipulation Motion Action Planner Enabled By Physics Informed Neural Networks, Jonathon E. Slightam, Logan E. Beaver

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Autonomous robotic manipulation in unstructured environments faces many challenges and is hindered by capabilities that bridge the gap between perception and acting on the world. Action plans that are centric to object motion rather than end-of-arm tooling behavior may aid this. This paper presents an autonomous action planner for a feedback linearizeable system comprised of three base motions that can be leveraged on their own or in combination to give custom motion plans. The optimization routine for the three different types of motion are presented, which are integrated into physics informed neural networks. A component of this is the autonomy …

Design Of A 915 Mhz Conduction-Cooled Cryomodule, G. Ciovati, J. Armstrong, A. Castilla, G. Cheng, J. Colley, K. Harding, G. Hayes, J. Vennekate, J. Lewis, J. Rathke, T. Schultheiss

Physics Faculty Publications

High-power, compact, continuous-wave (CW) linear electron accelerators with beam energies of up to 10 MeV are being considered for possible industrial applications. Conduction-cooled, superconducting radio-frequency (SRF) technology allows operating such machines at high electrical efficiency, thereby reducing the operating cost significantly. A prototype conduction-cooled SRF cryomodule has been designed and components are currently being manufactured. The cryomodule features a two-cell, 915 MHz SRF cavity, two cryocoolers, a fundamental power coupler, two magnetic shields, a thermal shield and warm-to-cold transitions. The cryomodule has been designed to be able to provide an energy gain of 3.5 MeV to a CW electron beam …

Unveiling The Interplay: Cold Work, Recrystallization, And Flux Expulsion, P. Dhakal, B. D. Khanal, S. Balachandran, S. Chetri, P. J. Lee, G. Ciovati

Physics Faculty Publications

The fabrication of SRF cavities from sheet materials includes deep-drawing, electron beam welding, chemical and mechanical polishing, high-temperature heat treatment, and material diffusion. The performance of these cavities is frequently constrained by magnetic flux trapping. In this presentation, we thoroughly examine how recrystallization influences flux expulsion in SRF cavities, using cold-worked niobium sheets from various suppliers. Our findings reveal that cold-worked sheets enhance flux expulsion, especially at lower heat treatment temperatures, by promoting improved recrystallization. In particular, a traditionally fabricated Nb cavity half-cell from an annealed poly-crystalline Nb sheet after an 800 C heat treatment leads to a bi-modal microstructure …

Point Cloud-Based Diffusion Models For The Electron-Ion Collider, Jack Y. Araz, Vinicius Mikuni, Felix Ringer, Nobuo Sato, Fernando Torales Acosta, Richard Whitehill

Physics Faculty Publications

At high-energy collider experiments, generative models can be used for a wide range of tasks, including fast detector simulations, unfolding, searches of physics beyond the Standard Model, and inference tasks. In particular, it has been demonstrated that score-based diffusion models can generate high-fidelity and accurate samples of jets or collider events. This work expands on previous generative models in three distinct ways. First, our model is trained to generate entire collider events, including all particle species with complete kinematic information. We quantify how well the model learns event-wide constraints such as the conservation of momentum and discrete quantum numbers. We …

Measuring Resistivity With Low-Cost 3-D Printed Four-Point Probe, Benjamin Siens

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Resistivity is an intrinsic property that determines how strongly electrical current is resisted. Measurement of the resistivity of materials is vital for many fields of science and engineering. This is easily accomplished with a four-point probe. However, commercial probes can be costly. Using 3-D printing and based on the design in Lu et al. (J. Chem. Educ. 2017), a functional four-point probe has been built at a much lower cost in materials. Additionally, the probe design has been simplified for easier construction and better compatibility with Belmont University’s 3- D printers. ITO glass was used to determine the accuracy of …