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 the Fall 2006, I moved to Albany, upstate New York, for a short collaboration with the College of Nanoscience at SUNY. 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.

  

Students

Brian Wilcken

Physics major

Major: Applied Physics with an emphasis in Computer Science

Senior thesis- August 2009: "Magnetic memory in exchange bias thin films"

Research projects: - computational developments for performing cross correlation/auto-correlation of XRMS speckle patterns. 

                                - Using Atomic Force Microscopy to image nanoparticles. 

                                - Development of instrumental equipment for magnetometry.

Joseph Nelson

Physics Major

I am from Arlington, Texas. Before coming at BYU, I studied  for two years at the University of Texas at Arlington, with a major in Physics and Music theory. I plan to graduate in April 2010 and  pursue a master's and PhD in Environmental Physics or in Medicine.

Research projects: - I am working on developing analysis' tools for correlating x-ray resonant magnetic scattering speckle data.

                                - I am also helping in developing Hall effect magnetometer

 

Andrew Westover

 

Physics Major

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

Magnetometry measurement using extraordinary Hall effect

 

Young Byun

 

Physics Major

Vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) to study thin films and nanoparticles

Nathan Gay

Biophysics major

I  am from Tracy, California.  I completed an Associate degree in physics from Las Positas College. In January 2008, I began studying Physics at BYU. I plan to graduate in April 2011 and then attend Medical school.

Research projects:

 I am working on developing Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) to image and study magnetic domains in thin ferromagnetic films and nanoparticles. I am also using the Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) to study the structural profile of the materials.

 

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.

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.