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The Physics Department Colloquium is held in the Center for Natural Sciences 204 at noon on Tuesdays or Thursday unless otherwise noted. Pizza and drinks are provided. Spring 2005 JAN-20 (THUR) Simple Fabrication and Functional Measurements of Complex Materials Jennifer Hampton, Depts. of Chemistry and Physics, The Pennsylvania State University   FEB-01 (TUE) Are superconductors really superconducting? Matt Sullivan. Intel Corp. Hillsboro, Oregon   FEB-03 (THUR) Exploring Truly Quantum Behavior in Light Robert Davies, Department of Physics, Seattle University.   FEB-09 (TUE) Weaving Quantum Entangled Webs  John Caraher, Department of Physics, Wabash College   FEB-24 (THUR) 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics Michael Rogers, Department of Physics, Ithaca College   MAR-03 (TUE) Global Warming and other hot topics Jason Hamilton, Department of Biology, Ithaca College   MAR-24 (THUR) Saturn! Britt Scharringhausen. Department of Physics, Ithaca College   MAR-25 (FRI) 2pm, Textor 102 What it is like to be a scientist working in Washington. Steven Feldgus, Congressional Aid Joint Chemistry, Biology, Physics APR-07 (THUR) 3PM The LIGO Project Steve Penn, Hobart and William Smith NOTE: This seminar is at a special time APR-14 (THUR) Science Results From the Mars Exploration Rover Missions Jason Sodderblom, Cornell Space Sciences   APR-28 (THUR) Junior Lab Student Talks Junior Lab Students

Thursday, January 20th, 2005

Jennifer Hampton, Depts. of Chemistry and Physics, The Pennsylvania State University

Simple Fabrication and Functional Measurements of Complex Materials

Nanoscale materials have a wide variety of current and potential applications, from data storage to sensors to microelectronics. Although complex in structure, nanoscale materials often can be fabricated using simple techniques. In this talk, I will discuss several experimental methods for the fabrication and characterization of these complex materials. I will present our recent results applying these techniques to electrodeposited ferromagnetic multilayers and patterned organic monolayers.

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Tuesday, February 1st, 2005

Matt Sullivan. Intel Corp. Hillsboro, Oregon

Are superconductors really superconducting?

Superconductors have fascinated physicists since their discovery in 1911. One of the main questions regarding these materials is whether their transitions into the superconducting state - which occur around 4 K in the earliest known superconductors - can be raised to create room-temperature resistance-free current flow. Scientists took a large step closer to answering that question in 1986, when the so-called "high-temperature" superconductors were discovered. These superconductors, with transition temperatures above the boiling point of nitrogen (77 K), have already made their way into everyday life: in MRI machines, cell phone towers, power lines, and even in microscopes for imaging integrated circuits. However, even though they are in use, and were discovered nearly two decades ago, the underlying mechanism that creates superconductivity in these materials is still unknown. In hopes of understanding this mechanism, my research focuses on the phase transition of these superconductors, and offers a detailed look at how they go from a normal metal above the transition temperature (Tc) to the superconducting state below Tc. In voltage vs. current measurements, the signal of a superconducting phase transition is a change from ohmic response (V ~ I) above Tc to non-linear power-law-like (V ~ Ia) below Tc. We have found that an ohmic response can be created in non-linear voltage vs. current curves due to several different phenomena, including noise, small magnetic fields, heating, and finite size effects. This ohmic response can obscure the phase transition, and can even lead to the conclusion that the phase transition does not exist at all! I will discuss some of these phenomena: how we can determine their effect theoretically and confirm it experimentally, and how we can eliminate their effects (if possible). Finally, I will offer some conclusions regarding the normal-superconducting phase transition in the high temperature superconductors. Fisher et al., PRB 43, 130 (1991) Strachan et al., PRL 87, 067001 (2001) Sullivan et al., PRB 70, 140503(R) (2004).

A magnet levitating above a superconductor.

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Thursday, February 3rd, 2005

Robert Davies, Department of Physics, Seattle University.

Exploring Truly Quantum Behavior in Light

In the early part of the 20th century, Planck, Einstein and others postulated and explored what they believed to be quantum aspects of light. It comes as a surprise to many that truly quantum behavior in light - behavior that cannot be described with the classical field theory of Maxwell - was first observed only in the 1980's! With the rise of experimental quantum optics in the past two decades has come new ability to probe fundamental questions arising in quantum mechanics - questions regarding coherence and decoherence, entanglement, complementarity and the uncertainty principle, for example. The field is also of interest technologically, most recently in the fields of quantum information theory and quantum computing. I will discuss the notion of "quantum behavior" in general, and then describe an instrument well-suited to undergraduate laboratories and ideal for studying truly quantum behavior in light.

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Tuesday, February 9th, 2005

John Caraher, Department of Physics, Wabash College

Weaving Quantum Entangled Webs

I will describe the experimental study of molecular states in which a highly-excited electron's radial motion and the rotation of the molecule are entangled. I will then discuss the entanglement of photon pairs, their production in the lab and their use both in the growing field of quantum information and in testing fundamental features of quantum theory.

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Thursday, February 24th, 2005

Michael Rogers, Department of Physics, Ithaca College

2004 Nobel Prize in Physics

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2004

"for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction" The discovery which is awarded this year's Nobel Prize is of decisive importance for our understanding of how the theory of one of Nature's fundamental forces works, the force that ties together the smallest pieces of matter - the quarks. David Gross, David Politzer and Frank Wilczek have through their theoretical contributions made it possible to complete the Standard Model of Particle Physics, the model that describes the smallest objects in Nature and how they interact. At the same time it constitutes an important step in the endeavour to provide a unified description of all the forces of Nature, regardless of the spatial scale - from the tiniest distances within the atomic nucleus to the vast distances of the universe.

David J. Gross	H. David Politzer	Frank Wilczek
1/3 of the prize	1/3 of the prize	1/3 of the prize
USA	USA	USA
Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California Santa Barbara, CA, USA	California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA, USA	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Cambridge, MA, USA
b. 1941	b. 1949	b. 1951

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Tuesday, March 3rd, 2005

Jason Hamilton, Department of Biology, Ithaca College

Global Warming and other hot topics

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Thursday, March 24th, 2005

Britt Scharringhausen, Department of Physics, Ithaca College

Saturn!

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Friday, March 25th, 2005

TBA

Joing IC Biology, Chemistry, and Physics

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Thursday, April 7th, 2005

teve Penn, Hobart and William Smith

The LIGO Project

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Thursday, April 14th, 2005

Jason Sodderblom, Cornell Space Sciences

Science Results From the Mars Exploration Rover Missions

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Thursday, April 30th, 2005

Junior Lab Students

Junior Lab Student Talks

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