Undergraduate Physics Research Assistant
Research Advisor: Cindy RegalResearch Areas: AMO Physics, Precision Measurement, Mechanical Resonators, Optomechanics, & Spin Mechanics• Studied mass loaded tensioned mechanical resonators using finite element method simulations (COMSOL), analytic calculations, and lab experiments.• Used eigenfrequency simulations (COMSOL) to calculate the frequency and quality factor of tensioned resonator modes as a function of the load mass.Overall simulation results revealed a previously unknown quality factor saturation effect.• Helped with analytic calculations to understand the origin of quality factor saturation in strings and membranes. Generalized the phenomenon toarbitrary geometry tensioned resonators using thermodynamic concepts.• Developed a method to systematically mass load micromechanical resonators using microscopic magnetic stacking. Worked in an ISO 6 clean room tosuccessfully implement the method on trampoline microresonators.• Designed, constructed, and aligned a Fabry-Perot interferometer to readout resonator motion with picometer level precision.• Cleaned and set up a vacuum chamber to generate a high-vacuum (1E-7 Torr) environment for performing ringdown quality factor measurements.• Integrated the vacuum chamber with the interferometer and set up a piezo drive circuit for quality factor measurements.• Machined aluminum parts to one thousandths of an inch level precision and used them to create a setup for mounting microresonators.• Conducted mounting experiments and found an optimal mounting strategy to minimize radiation loss in trampoline microresonators.• Measured the quality factor of mass loaded trampoline microresonators and successfully demonstrated quality factor saturation.• Wrote a research journal paper as the second author to summarize the results (https://journals.aps.org/prapplied/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.19.L031006). Presented results at a conference.
