Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
This REU program is in an interdisciplinary area of
experimental and computational material research.
The idea here is to do high-risk high-reward research.
What our goal in this program is really to expose an
interdisciplinary group of students to this interdisciplinary
research and materials.
So I think it really brings the best of
you know what UAB has to offer to undergraduates.
We are attempting to do something hasn't been done before
and grow a nanostructured diamond on top of a yttrium
aluminum garnet substrate. We start by seeding
a sample with little chunks of diamond which are only
a few nanometers across. And then grow in a chamber
at much less pressure than what we feel out here: about one-tenth of our
atmosphere pressure. Grow it at very hot temperatures
which causes free carbons to attach themselves and coalesce
into a diamond film. It's pretty fantastic that you can actually take
something that takes nature a very long time to produce
under extreme conditions and we can do it in a lab in just
a matter of a couple of hours.
For YAG crystals thermal conductivity becomes very
important. Because if you can get rid of excess heat out of these
YAG crystals you can produce lasers that are more powerful
than what currently exist.
Which is pretty fantastic, you know, you're thinking about doing
next generation technology.
Possibly solving the power issues. I'm a non-traditional student. I am
an electrical engineering major with a physics minor from the
University of Tennessee at Martin. This is an opportunity to do something
that would not have been available to me otherwise. I could not done research
at my university. We're simply just not a research university.
UAB is a fantastic environment as far as the people being
supportive and being there to help you.
Whether it's our program director or the graduate student that I've worked
with, everybody has been there for me every step of the way
to help me to develop to be productive
in the environment. I really couldn't ask for a better situation.
They've been completely supportive.