Momentum Imaging of Photoelectrons
by Casey Kretzer
Mentor: Dr. Igor Litvinyuk
Welcome to my webpage. This
page summarizes my experience doing research for the Summer 2008 with my
mentor. The basis of the project is to image a molecule’s structure by ionizing
it, then creating a collision with its ionized electron using an intense
infrared laser. The collision will cause this electron to diffract and we want
to be able to map its momentum after this occurs. My part of the project is to
help design a velocity-map imaging detector that will block low energy
electrons that will not diffract and make sure it still captures the data from
the electrons we need in order to predict what the molecule it came from looks
like. Also, I am to aid in figuring out how to take data from the detector and
transform it into useful data.
Below, I describe
the Project Goals, my Research Strategy, my Research Progress, and will eventually post my Final Presentation and Final
Report. I also included some summaries of the ethics discussions led
by Dr. Amy Lara and Dr. Bruce Glymour, and my reaction to Prof. Larry Weaver's lectures.
Scroll all the way down to learn more About Me.
Finally, I've included some Useful Links.
1.
Come up with optimized voltages for our design so
electrons with the same amount of initial vertical momentum will land at the same
spot on the detector, even when starting out at slightly different position.
2.
Use those voltages to determine how to block lower
energy electrons.
3.
Figure out how to use the Inverse Abel Transform to
take the data on a detector and create a 3-D probability distribution from it.
Research Strategy: Mainly simulations of
electrons going through the setup will be made in SIMION. The data obtained
will be used to come up with the optimized voltages and will be the preliminary
data that will be transformed when performing it is figured out.
Final
Presentation
Ethics
Classes by Professors Bruce Glymour and Amy Lara
I am currently a junior at Rose-Hulman
Institute of Technology, the number one ranked undergraduate engineering
college in the country for the last nine years, according to U.S. News and World Report. I intend to
get two degrees, one in Physics and the other in Optical Engineering, as well
as a Math minor and perhaps a Spanish minor if I can fit it in my schedule. The department I am in is appropriately called Physics
and Optical Engineering. I am also the Publicity Chair of our
Residence Hall Association (and ironically living off campus next year) and I
plan on having our Society of Optical Engineers group started up again next
year.
Useful
Links:
American Physical Society Statements on
Ethics