According to The Wall Street Journal’s “Market Watch,” alternative energy is one of the fastest growing industries in the United States.  Elizabeth Jonathan ’13, a physics concentrator and mathematics minor, and Sunrose Shrethsa ’14, a physics and mathematics double concentrator, are using their summer research grant to investigate new possibilities in this dynamic field.

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Professor of Physics Ann Silversmith presented a talk and a poster at the annual spring meeting of the Materials Research Society (MRS) in San Francisco.

 

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Sarah Fobes’12 presented a poster at the International Conference on Luminescence, held in Ann Arbor, Mich., June 26- July 1. Her poster was titled “Post-annealing immersion study of sol-gel silicate glasses containing rare earth dopants.”

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Fluorescent materials have important implications for modern technologies. However, the study of fluorescence can be a complex and precise matter. This summer, Erin Bessette-Kirton ’12, a physics major with minors in math and geology, will work with Professor of Physics Ann Silversmith to investigate the structure of terbium in doped sol-gel glass and the terbium concentration’s effect on fluorescence decay.

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Solar cells hold the potential to provide an efficient and environmentally-clean energy source. With the recent interest in alternative forms of energy, solar power is gaining importance, and so is research on solar cell efficiency. Over the summer, Sarah Fobes is working on an innovative method of improving solar cell efficiency using rare earth elements. She is collaborating with Professor of Physics Ann Silversmith on their project, “Quantum Cutting to Enhance Solar Cell Efficiency.”

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An article by Kate Arpino '10, "Post Annealing Immersion: a new technique for studying rare earth ions in porous materials," was published online by the Journal of Luminescence.

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Andrew Beyler and Kate Arpino, both members of the class of 2010 and chemical physics majors, presented their senior thesis research at the 17th International Conference on Dynamic Processes in Excited States of Solids. It took place at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago from June 20-25 and had 130 attendees. More ...

Standing in the dark lab, Sarah Fobes ’12 and Zane Glauber ’12 flip the switch to turn on their laser. In the blink of an eye, the tiny glass sample that they had labored over glows a radioactive green—with any luck, a brighter green than the last one they illuminated. Working with Professor of Physics Ann Silversmith, Fobes and Glauber are spending the summer experimenting with different aspects of glass formation to make it fluoresce (or glow) more brightly, with the indirect consequence of being able to make a better laser. More ...

A paper by Professor of Physics Ann Silversmith and former Hamilton students Nguyen T.T. Nguyen '08 and Dan Campbell '08, has been published in the December 2009 issue of the Journal of Luminescence. The article, "Fluorescence yield in rare earth doped sol-gel silicate glasses," was also co-authored by Carlos Ortiz '08 and Dan Boye of Davidson College and Kurt Hoffman of Whitman College. More ...