Welcome to

Jamboree 2012
Jamboree 2012

Atomic, Molecular &

Optical Physics
Jeff McGuirk
Mike Hayden
Paul Haljan
 Laser cooling & trapping, ultracold gases,
Bose-Einstein condensation

Use laser cooling to trap a gas of a billion Rb atoms

and cool to 100 mK.
Magnetic fields + rf radiation evaporatively cool
sample to ~20 nK.
As atoms become colder & denser, their de Broglie
wavelengths increase and start to overlap.
Atoms condense into ground state of trap BEC!

T ~ 100 mK
T = 3.1 mK

T = 800 nK

T = 120 nK
T = 24 nK
~2 peV
 McGuirk group cast

Jeff McGuirk Yang Lan

Dorna Niroomand
(M.Sc. Student)
(M.Sc. student)

Current group interests:

Quantum fluid dynamics: How does quantum symmetry affect spin
dynamics in ultra-cold gases?
Out-of-equilibrium spin behavior in a quantum gas above and
below quantum degeneracy (spin waves, coherence dynamics,
instabilities)

Tunable optical potentials: Can we create new novel states of matter

through optical manipulation of ultra-cold gases?
Optically-induced electromagnetic gravity (creating ultracold
Bose stars in the lab), sonic black holes in condensates
Precision Searches for Microwave Spectroscopy
Permanent of Antimatter
Electric Nuclear Atoms
Dipole Spin
Moments Turbulence

Frontiers in Magnetic Resonance:

Rare Gases, Exotic Atoms,
and Unconventional Probes
Hayden Lab

Ne Ar New MR Imaging
He Technologies and
Applications

Kr Xe Rn
Mike Hayden Mohammad Dehghani Reza Tavakoli Dinani
PhD Candidate PhD Candidate

Geoff Archibald Ryan Dunlop

Postdoc PhD Candidate
 Ion trapping
group

SFU Ion trap Mark 1

Sandia microtrap at SFU

Laser and photonics technology

We are an experimental atomic and laser physics group.

We trap single Ytterbium ions for:
Quantum computing research.
Quantum simulations at the single-atom scale.

Trapped ions in a crystallized array ~10 m

 Ion trapping http://physics.sfu.ca/sites/haljan/
group

Current experiment:
Spontaneous nucleation
of topological defects

Current group: Sara Ejtemaee (Ph.D.)

171Yb+ qubit setup.
PI: Paul C Haljan Structural defects.

Joey Zhong (BSc,

Synthesizers for quant. ops.
Demonstration ion trap
Jamboree 2012

Biophysics & Soft Condensed

Physics
Jenifer Thewalt
Barbara Frisken
Nancy Forde
Eldon Emberly
John Bechoefer
 Jenifer Thewalt Lab
Physics/Molecular Biology & Biochemistry
We look at membrane lipid organization using nuclear magnetic
resonance (NMR).
Cholesterol makes up approx 40% of lipids in the outer membrane of cells.
Why?
Phospholipids are used to enhance gene therapy how does this work?
Deuterium (2H) NMR
spectroscopy can probe lipid
conformations within membranes

Our NMR
magnet Disordered

Ordered

Gel

-100 -50 0 50 100

Frequency shift (kHz)
 September
2012

Mehran
Linda
Sherry
 Structure and Dynamics of Soft Matter Systems
1. Competition between phase separation and crystallization in
colloid-polymer mixtures

TEM image of PMMA colloids Photo colloid-polymer mixture on the ISS after phase
separation
2. Relationship between morphology and bulk properties of
polymer membranes
SPS PVDF domains
PVDF Sidechains
Backbone

Ionic clusters
Structure and Dynamics of Soft Matter Systems
Current Group

Rasoul
Barbara
Sepehr Narimani
Frisken Pierayeh
Tahmasebi
Vahdani
Sisakht

September 2012
 Overview of lab research
1. PROTEIN MECHANICS from single molecules to materials
Relating sequence and structure to mechanical function
Structural proteins: collagen and elastin
Made to order and harvested from cells
F Characterized with optical tweezers
z Molecular blueprint for viscoelasticity

Collagen triple helix

2. MOLECULAR MOTORS
Designing and experimentally characterizing novel protein-based motors
Monte Carlo simulations of molecular motors
 Lab members
PROTEIN MECHANICS

Mike Kirkness Naghmeh Rezaei Marjan Shayegan Andrew Wieczorek

Biophysics BSc student Physics PhD student Chemistry PhD student Research associate
Construction of centrifuge BSc, Tehran MSc, Sharif MSc, UBC
force microscope Collagen stretching Microrheology of collagen Collagen characterization
and modification

MOLECULAR MOTORS

Nancy Forde
aka da boss

Laleh Samii Martin Zuckermann

Physics PhD student Collaborator
MSc, Sharif Molecular motors simulations
Molecular motors
experiments and simulation
 Images: Mike Durkin, YNSE
The Emergence and Complexity of Life
Where did we come from? What is consciousness? Are we alone in the universe?

F r e e p u b l i c l e ct u r e s Fa l l 2 0 1 2
Please join us for six fascinating interdisciplinary lectures from some of the
top minds in the world. Lectures take place in the IRMACS Theatre, ASB 10900,
Burnaby, unless otherwise noted. Reserve your seats online: www.sfu.ca/reserve
Friday, September 14, 3:305 pm Monday, October 22, 3:305 pm
Self-organization Is Not Enough: How Cells Control Size
Wallace Marshall is is Associate Professor of
On Beyond Complex Systems Biochemistry & Biophysics at the University of California,
Terrence W. Deacon is Professor, and Chair, Anthropology
San Francisco. His work is focused on the engineering
Department, University of California, Berkeley. His
design principles that underly cellular morphogenesis.
research combines evolutionary biology and neuroscience
to study the evolution of human cognition. Images Theatre.
Thursday, November 15, 3:305 pm
Monday, September 24, 3:305 pm Exoplanets and the Search for
The Earliest History of Life: Habitable Worlds
Solution to Darwins Dilemma Sara Seager is Professor of Planetary Science and
Bill Schopf, Professor of Paleobiology, UCLA Department Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
of Earth and Space Sciences, is one of the worlds top Her internationally recognized research searches for
paleobiologists. His research extended the scientific date planets outside our solar system that may be capable of
for the beginning of life to 3.5 billion years ago. harbouring life. SWH 10081, Saywell Hall.

Monday, October 1, 3:305 pm Friday, December 7, 3:305 pm

Connecting Chemistry to Biology The Biology of Consciousness
Steven Benner is Distinguished Fellow at the Foundation Christof Koch is the Lois and Victor Troendle Professor
for Applied Molecular Evolution. His research group of Cognitive and Behavioral Biology at California Institute
invented dynamic combinatorial chemistry and played a of Technology. He studies the biophysics of computation,
central role in establishing the fields of synthetic biology and the neuronal basis of visual perception, attention, and
and paleomolecular biology. consciousness.

www.sfu.ca/grad/events/dreamcolloquium/FallColloquium.html
Emberly Group: Computational Biophysics

LEARNING RESPONSE PROTEIN UNFOLDING

Force

BIOLOGICAL PATTERNING

DNA PACKAGING
AND SOCIOLOGY
 Who We Are

Eldon Emberly

Saeed Saberi

Pau Farre

Sara Sadeghi
Sara Sadeghi Eldon Emberly Also:
Vaibhav Wasnik
Saeed Saberi
Ricky Gill

Mahdi Keramati (visiting professor)

 Bechhoefer Group

DNA replication
lots of modelling
experiments to come?

ABEL trap
fundamental stat mech
single-molecule interactions
John Bechhoefer Antoine Baker Momilo Gavrilov

Scott Yang ChangMin Kim Dirk Wiedmann

Jamboree 2012

Cosmology, Nuclear & Particle

Physics
Levon Pogosian Mike Vetterli
Andrei Frolov Bernd Stelzer
Dugan ONeil
 Cosmology: Levon Pogosian

Levon P. Yun Li Yang Liu Aaron Plahn

Recently departed

Alireza Hojjati Starla Talbot

 Cosmology: Levon Pogosian

Cosmic Microwave Background

Cosmic Magnetic Fields
Cosmic strings

Formation of cosmic structures

Dark Energy
Cosmological Tests of Gravity
 SFU Cosmology Group
Andrei Frolov Jun-Qi Guo

1
R + 2 R g = 8G T + ?
 SFU Cosmology Group
Phase CMB Physics
Transitions and Analysis

Structure Formation, and of course,

modified gravity, etc... lots of coffee...
The ATLAS Experiment; to the Heart of Matter
The SFU Experimental High-Energy Particle Physics Group
3 faculty members, 3 postdocs, 7-8 graduate students, and N undergraduates

Search for the fundamental constituents of matter and their interactions

ATLAS: Experiment at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland to study proton-proton

collisions at the highest energies ever achieved in the laboratory

How do subatomic particles get their mass? Higgs boson

Top quark studies
Is there Physics Beyond the Standard Model?
- Supersymmetry
- Quark substructure
- Extra dimensions
- Grand Unified Theory
Experiment/Analysis Support:
- Liquid Argon Calorimetry (Jet-Energy Scale)
- Tau lepton identification
- Worldwide Computing Grid
- Global Data Quality Monitoring
Discovery of a SM-Higgs-like Boson!!
Mike Vetterli (Joint with TRIUMF)
LAr Calorimetry: measure the energy of the
particles coming from the proton-proton collisions
MSc student:
- Jet-Energy Scale in Z+jet Events
Postdoc @ CERN: - Response @ low energy
- Jet-Energy Scale in 2011 data
what really happens - quark vs gluon jet response
when a high-energy
particle hits the
calorimeter?
- Top-quark MSc student:
cross sections - Jet-Energy Scale in Dijet Events
- how does the calorimeter
response depend on whether
the jet originated from a quark
or a gluon?

Jet Physics
Quark substructure
 ATLAS-Canada Tier-1 Computing Centre

One of only 10 Tier-1

centres in the Worldwide
LHC Computing Grid
(WLCG)

MV is the
Project Leader

The Tier-1 centre currently consists of: - 5,000 cores in 554 nodes
- 7,570 TB of disk
- 5,500 TB of tape (robotic silo)
- 50 Grid computing servers
 ATLAS Publications Committee
I am the deputy-chair of the ATLAS Publications Committee
This committee is charged with organizing the review of all ATLAS publications
(papers & scientific notes), as well as the final vetting of the documents.
I will be the chair of PubCom next year (sabbatical at CERN)

Essentially in the last two years:

-186 Journal Papers
(a large number of them Letters)
- 391 Scientific Notes
10
papers/mo
nth

Mar Aug
2010 2012
 Bernd Stelzers Research
ATLAS Global Monitoring

ATLAS Control Room

Bernd Stelzer SFU Fall 2012 1
 Bernd Stelzers Research
Michele Petteni Michelle Boudreau

Postdoc, working on: MSc student, working on:

Top quark resonances Top quark resonances
Jet/MET Data Quality
Calorimeter noise

Koos van Nieuwkoop Matthew Bluteau

MSc student, working on: Ugrad student, working on:
Higgs (H->WW->lvlv) VBF Higgs production
measurement
Global Monitoring

Bernd Stelzer SFU Fall 2012 2

Introduction

I am also a particle physics experimentalist.

I am spend all of my research time on ATLAS.
In my group we currently work on:
The search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in the 2-tau-lepton
decay channel (watch for updates this fall).
The search for Supersymmetric charged Higgs bosons through their
decays to tau-leptons.
Acting as the deputy spokesperson for ATLAS-Canada.
Acting as priciple investigator of WestGrid at SFU - brings computing
to ATLAS (and others).
We have spent a lot of time in the last 5 years learning to identify tau
leptons in the ATLAS experiment. Now we exploit this work to search
for new physics.

Dugan ONeil (SFU) Dugan ONeils Research 9/14/2012 1/2

The ATLAS Tau Graduate Students

Jennifer Godfrey: PhD student searching for SUSY

charged Higgs. At SFU.

Noel Dawe: PhD student working on Higgs

searches. At SFU.

Michel Trottier-McDonald: PhD student working on

Higgs searches. At CERN until January.

Andres Tanasijczuk: postdoc working on Higgs

searches. At CERN.

Dugan ONeil (SFU) Dugan ONeils Research 9/14/2012 2/2

Jamboree 2012

Hard Condensed Matter Physics

Simon Watkins Macolm Kennet
Mike Thewalt Karen Kavanagh
Jeff Sonier Erol Girt
Pat Mooney Steve Dodge
George Kirczenow David Broun
 Semiconductor growth: Simon Watkins
Growth of semiconductor films, nanostructures and
devices by vapor deposition

GaAs
GaAs
InAs
1. III-V Semiconductor nanowires:
Growth, electrical and optical properties of III-V
nanowires
Control and characterization of doping
Growth of core shell structures
Device applications.
for device applications (solar
cells, transistors, gas sensors...)
Electrical measurements on a
single GaAs nanowire
2. Wide gap materials: ZnO and
related compounds for optoelectronics 7 As-grown
10
I9 I8 900C anneal
PL Intensity (Counts/Sec) 1000C anneal
6
10 I2
Growth mechanisms, doping 5
10
I8(B)
I1
mechanisms, electrical transport, low 4
10
(a) FXL
(b)
temperature optical spectroscopy, 3
I6
10 (c)
ZnO nanowires 2
I0

10
3350 3355 3360 3365 3370 3375
Energy(meV)

3. Narrow bandgap III V semiconductor materials:

Type II superlattices for mid IR detectors (focal plane arrays)
 Graduate students:

E Senthil Kumar (PDF)

Shima Alagha, electrical and Faezeh Mohammadbeigi, PhD
MOCVD growth of II-VI
Omid Salehzadeh Einabad structural properties of II-VI Candidate, low temperature optical
semiconductors
(PhD Candidate) III-V nanowires properties of ZnO
nanowires

Recent graduates:
Undergraduate
research assistants

Thomas
Wintschel

Ian Anderson
David Lackner (PhD Sept 2011)
(undergrad) Zhiwei Deng (MSc Feb 2012)
Narrow gap materials and photodetectors
ZnO optical characterization
Ultra High Resolution Spectroscopy in Isotopically Enriched 28Silicon.
This material produces revolutionary results:
Defect Spectroscopy Isotopic Fingerprints
Nuclear Polarization of Phosphorus
and Bismuth
ODMR and NMR Studies
Quantum Computation Applications
 Sonier - Superconductivity and Magnetism 120

0.0
La2-xSrxCuO4
TRIUMF Centre for Molecular and Materials Science 100 0.45

Temperature (K)
80 0.90

60 1.4

SR: muon as a local 40 1.8

magnetic probe 20 2.3

2.6
0
0.15 0.18 0.21 0.24 0.27 0.30 0.33

Sr content, x

0.20
26 K
15 K
0.15 13 K

YBa2Cu3O6.37

a Gz(t)
0.10

10 K
0.05 8K
5K
2.5 K

0.00
0.0 0.5 1.0
Time (s)
V3Si
Real Amplitude

H = 50 kOe
T = 3.8 K
Current Local Group
Zahra Lotfi Mahyari (Ph.D. student)
Christina Kaiser (Ph.D. student)
Ashley Cannell (B.Sc. student)
674 676 678 680 682
Evandro de Mello (Visiting Professor)
Frequency (MHz) Amir Zelati (Ph.D. internship)
 Mooney Research Lab

Semiconductor materials: applications in electronic and photonic devices for telecommunications,

computing, energy conversion and transmission, energy efficient light sources, etc.
Experimental physics: characterization of semiconductors investigate electronic and structural properties
Focus on semiconductor defects and impurities: defects and impurities determine material properties

Capacitance Spectroscopy: GaAsBi Modified Substrates for III-V Semiconductors

0.5
GaAs
photoresist pattern -- 20m
A C C E 390 C
0.0
D GaAsBi 0.3%
330 C
C [pF]

-0.5 GaAsBi 0.7%

A B
330 C
E
-1.0 C
bonded features -- 20m
-1.5
D
-2.0
100 200 300 400 500 600
Temperature [K]
Peaks indicates electron transitions from a defect
energy level in the semiconductor bandgap.
Lattice constant of defect-free surface layer
Incorporating Bi decreases the bandgap energy
is different from substrate
but defects are introduced at these growth
temperatures.
 Mooney Research Group Summer 2012

Brie Cawston-Grant Pat Mooney

USRA -- Summer 2011 Professor
and 2012

Keelan Watkins Zenan Jiang Alberto Basile

Research Assistant Research Assistant Postdoc
 Nanophysics Theory Group
George Kirczenow

We study the smallest condensed matter systems

Example: Single-molecule electronic devices.
gold lead molecule gold lead
current current

T = quantum transmission probability

Spintronics based on individual magnetic molecules.

Vibrating molecular wires.
Electrical conduction in graphene nanoribbons.
Atoms and molecules adsorbed on graphene.
Spin injection from ferromagnets into semiconductors.
Siarhei George Darrell Fatemeh Firuz Alireza
 Kennett Research Group

Malcolm Peter Smith Nazanin Zahra Mohktari

Kennett Komeilizadeh

Condensed Matter Theory:

1) Quantum materials
2) Cold atom analogues of condensed
matter systems
Synthetic magnetic fields and Dirac Numerical methods to explore
physics for neutral cold atoms electronic correlations in disordered
interacting electron systems

Transport in
layered metals,
e.g. high Tc
cuprates

Quantum quenches of cold atoms

Nanoscale control of structure and properties
Nanowire contacts and strain accommodation GaAs, ZnO, InAs/GaAs
Spin Injection - Epitaxial electrodeposition Fe/GaAs
Transmission mode bio-sensors Au nanohole arrays
Electron holography magnetic nanostructures

Karen L. Kavanagh
Dept. of Physics, TASC II, 4D Labs, SFU
http: www.sfu.ca/kavanaghlab.html

Group Members:
Azadeh Ahktari-Zavareh,
Sarmita Majumder, Donna Hohertz,
Christoph Herrman, Shima Alagha,
Cristina Cordoba, Mingze Yang
Funding: NSERC, NRAS
 Kavanagh Group Members 2012
Christoph, Florian, Sarmita, Azadeh, Karen, Donna, Bijun, Van, Donna, Teresa, Shima, James
Surface Science Lab
Magnetic and Semiconductor structures and devices
1) Nano size structures and devices:

Injection of spin polarized current:

Spin diffusion, GMR, TMR, spin torque
transfer, injection into semiconductors
Devices (nanofabrication):
STT RAM memory, magnetic transistors

Confined structures
Exchange stiffness, magnetization reversal ,
light absorption
Devices:
10nm Magnetic media in HD, solar cells

2) Micron size structures and devices: Defects, light absorption, solar cells
The Dodge Group: Ultrafast optics for material physics
Kayla McLean (BSc), Amir Farahani, (PDF), Laleh Mohtashemi (MSc), Anthony Steigvilas (MSc), JSD, Derek
Sahota (PhD), Calvin Lobo (BSc), Payam Mousavi (PhD, not shown), Rohan Abraham (MSc, not shown)

J. Steven Dodge (SFU) Ultrafast optics for material physics SFU Physics Intro 12 1/2
Research overview
Time-Domain THz Spectroscopy OPA Continuum

t ~ 1/ t < 100 fs

DFG Ti:sapph

Metallic conductivity SC gap, spin excitations, phonons Gap excitations

1010 1011 1012 1013 1014 1015

Frequency [Hz]

10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 100

Energy [eV]

I Nonlinear optical susceptibility is sensitive to novel symmetries.

I Terahertz spectroscopy is sensitive to metallic interactions.
I Pump-probe spectroscopy give access to new states of matter.
I Terahertz spectroscopy development for industrial applications.

J. Steven Dodge (SFU) Ultrafast optics for material physics SFU Physics Intro 12 2/2