Research

Graduate

Left-Handed light refers to electromagnetic radiation propagating in a medium that has simultaneous negative values for electric permittivity and magnetic permeability. These materials, called metamaterials, don't exist in nature and must be engineered.

Negative permittivity and permeability have remarkable consequences, primarily because they lead to a negative refractive index. Therefore, light undergoes "negative refraction" in such material and bends the "wrong" way. Furthermore, the Doppler Effect and Cerenkov Radiation are reversed. Current research seeks to use transformation optics to fabricate an invisibility cloak, a material that bends radiation of particular frequencies in such a way that there is minimal absorption and reflection. Another useful application is the development of so-called "superlenses". These are lenses made of metamaterials that are able to overcome the diffraction limit and achieve sub-wavelength focusing.

Ultimately, I am interested in the marriage between negative refraction and general relativity. Does gravitation distort spacetime in such a way that gives rise to negative refraction? Are these effects visible in our universe? Researchers have recently shown that regions of negative refraction exist near the equator of rotating black holes. Rotating black holes (or Kerr black holes) are characterized by a region where light and matter are dragged along with the rotating black hole (gravitational frame dragging) but are able to escape its gravitational pull. This region, outside the event horizon, is called the ergosphere, and it has been shown that negative phase propagation is possible for plane waves escaping from here. The effect is enhanced along the equator and is directly proportional to the angular momentum of the black hole.

For more information on this exciting field of research, see Dr. John Pendry's website from Imperial College in London.

My adviser, Dr. Ronald Mallett (adviser lineage) is a member of the PAN Group (Particle, Astro, and Nuclear Physics) in the physics department at UConn.

Undergraduate

As an undergraduate, I gained applied research experience as a NASA Undergraduate Space Grant Intern. This program employs students as interns in research institutions across the country to tackle the most innovative and important questions/problems plaguing NASA today. For my project, I worked in conjunction with the nationwide, Deep Ecliptic Survey team to study the Kuiper Belt under the supervision of Dr. David Trilling. The Kuiper Belt yields tremendous insight into the evolution of our solar system because it contains ancient, pristine comet-like bodies orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune. Because of the otherwise isolated location of the Kuiper Belt, these objects (KBOs) do not significantly interact gravitationally with the massive terrestrial part of the Solar System. Therefore, their orbits have been virtually untainted in time.

I worked on the photometric calibration of the Kuiper Belt to increase precision and accuracy on KBO flux measurements, and subsequently, on the KBO size distribution. By studying the size distribution of the Kuiper Belt, we can develop a more refined accretion timescale of the Solar System. My work has been to write the priority protocol for photometric calibration as well as the original software used to reduce photometric data.

This research has provided me with a wide breadth of skills and practices including computer programming in three languages (C, IDL, PHP). You can find my personal IDL library here. I also have used the following telescopes:

Government

I also had the opportunity to intern with the US Department of Energy in Washington DC. I worked in the Nuclear Division's Office of Space and Defense Power Systems. In particular, I worked on innovative energy conversion devices for use in NASA spacecraft. An example of such is the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG). This system uses the heat released from the alpha decay and spontaneous fission of Plutonium-238 to power the vehicle. The Cassini satellite, which recently took fly-by pictures of Saturn's largest moon: Titan, uses RTGs as a supplementary power source.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cutdrawing_of_an_GPHS-RTG.jpg

I was also lucky enough to visit the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory as well as Argonne-West National Laboratory in Idaho Falls, Idaho.