Physics & Astronomy

Research Group

 

Karine Chesnel - Faculty

I am a French native. I did my schooling in France at the Ecole normale Superieure de Lyon, where i received a B.S. in physical sciences in 1997, and the Agregation of Physics in 1998. I did my graduate studies at the University Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, received a M.S. in condensed matter physics in 1999, and a Ph.D. in Physics in 2002. I did my Ph.D. research project at the Comissariat a l'Energie Atomique (CEA) at Grenoble, with Michel Belakhovsky, and became involved in experiments at synchrotron facilities, at the European Synchrotron radiation Facility (ESRF) in France and at the Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS) in UK.   In Nov 2002, I moved to Berkeley, California, to start a post-doctoral work at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in collaboration with Steve Kevan, Jeff Kortright and Eric Fullerton. I worked at Advanced Light Source, helping develop a new beamline (BL12.0.2) optimized for coherent x-ray magnetic scattering. I studied various systems (ferromagnetic thin film, exchange bias systems and nanoparticles) involving spectroscopy and scattering techniques. In January 2007 I moved back to France, where I worked at the Laboratoire National de Champs Magnetiques Pulses (LNCMP), a CNRS laboratory located in Toulouse. With an international team from Belgium, Germany and France, we developed X-ray scattering experiments under in-situ intense pulsed magnetic fields (up to 30 T) at the ESRF. Since January 2008, I am an Assistant Professor at the Physics Department at Brigham Young University, in Utah. My research activity is centered on studying electronic and magnetic properties in condensed matter physics, with an emphasis on magnetic nanostructures. We are developing a magnetometry facility including Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) and magnetometry (vibrating sample magnetometer). We are also interested in using synchrotron X-ray scattering, spectroscopy and  imaging tools to probe the spatio-temporal behaviors of materials at the microscopic scale.

  

Current students

 Yanping Cai

Graduate student

Hometown: China

 

Andrew Westover

 

Physics Major (Japanese/Chinese minors)

Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) imaging on thin ferromagnetic films.

Magnetometry measurement using Extraordinary Hall Effect (EHE)

Hometown: Salt Lake City, Utah

 

Matthew Rytting

Physics Major

Magnetic memory in exchange bias film

Magnetic Force Microscopy( MFM)

Hometown: Kansas

 

Matea Trevino

Physics Major (Music minor)

Elaboration and characterization of magnetite nanoparticles

Vibrating sample magnetometry  (VSM)

Magnetic Force Microscopy( MFM)

Hometown: Texas

 

 

Susan Stoffer

 

Physics Major

Exchange bias thin films

Vibrating sample magnetometry  (VSM)

Surface magneto-optical Kerr effect ( SMOKE)

Hometown: Winsconsin

 

Former students

Young Byun

Graduated August 2011- B.S. Physics

 

Senior Thesis: Vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) studies of exchange bias thin films

Homecountry: South Korea

Currently: working at Hunday, Korea

Joseph Nelson

Graduated April 2010- B.S. Physics

Development of analysis' tools for correlating x-ray resonant magnetic scattering speckle data. Vibrating Sample Magnetometry studies on thin films. Senior thesis:

Hometown: Arlington, Texas

Currently: in Medical school at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas

 

Brian Wilcken

 Graduated Aug 2009- B.S. Applied Physics (computer sciences)

Computational developments for cross correlation of XRMS speckle patterns.  Atomic Force Microscopy to image nanoparticles.  Senior thesis:

Hometown: Seattle, WA

Currently: working at Boeing, Washington state

Luke Pritchett

Nathan Gay

Biophysics major

From Tracy, California.  Completed an Associate degree in physics from Las Positas College, before studying BioPhysics at BYU. Plans to attend Medical school.

Research projects: Has worked on developing Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) to image and study magnetic domains in thin ferromagnetic films and nanoparticles.

William Anderton

Mechanical engineering major

I am from Austin, TX. I study to become a Mechanical Engineer. I plan to graduate in 2011 and go on to earn a masters in either prosthetics/orthotics or biomedical engineering.  I am currently working on setting up an electromagnet to help us record magnetic hysteresis loop for thin ferromagnetic films. Basically I am working to create an Anomalous Hall-effect magnetometer.

Kyle Miller

Physics Major (Music minor)

Extraordinary Hall effect magnetometry

Setup of Magneto-optical Kerr effect

Hometown: Utah

Cameron Quist

Chemistry major

My name is Cameron Quist. I am from Cleveland, Ohio
My major is Chemistry
I am working on taking images of little wafers with cool nanoparticles on them. I'm using an awesome microscope to first take an image of just the wafer surface according to height by tapping it very lightly with a pyramid on the end of a very little stick called a cantilever. I then have the microscope follow along the same path but higher and moving up and down so as to keep equidistant from the surface while measuring the strength of the magnetic field from the wafer.

Todd Willecam

Physics Major

Cross-correlation of magnetic speckle patterns

Study magnetic memory in exchange bias films under different cooling conditions

I also work full-time as a computer programmer at Verio, Orem.