18 February 2004: Emailing profs and applying for summer jobs.

29 August 2003: SO I'm a little behind on updating, but not without good reason. Julia visited the LTC and then I visited Urszula in the BST and found the cafeteria. LEARNED A TON. Her method of quantifying trapping power is based on the suppression of brownian motion: the bead is imaged on a computer screen in four quadrants and the microscope's field of view is adjusted to see only the particle being trapped. Without trapping in operation, Observed Brownian motion in my particles, powerful trap (rose Chamber secrets!); going very well!)

28 August 2003: Bank account opened under my name (research stipend $500 from the Simons Foundation)

27 August 2003: Visited Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

26 August 2003: 2-7902 in Graduate Chemistry rm 467 (waited 4 hours and got learner's permit (the DMV, my new place of residence) and visited Yale on an empty stomach. Enjoyed the acidified chapel that was consequently dethroned from its title of "tallest free standing structure in the world"...

25 August 2003: AHHHHH Last full week left before school starts! I CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE SETUP. Maybe it was this weekend (think Little Mermaid and commerce boosting) or this ineffective morning (think DMV and Bank) but this afternoon was one of the most...destructive? constructive? novel? inventive? creative? patience-testing? (AHHH so many choices) EFFECTIVE days at the LTC ever. First, Dr. Noe suggested ripping apart the lens systems. The reverse telescope (sylindrical lens system) to circularize and the spherical lens to enlarge seemed redundant...so we rotated the cylindrical lenses by 90 degrees and attempted operation. Null set. Then we chucked the spherical lenses and LO AND BEHOLD, observed OPTICAL TWEEZING for the first time since I touched the setup. AHHHHHHHHHH. It's nearly 11 now so I'm going to eat.

22 August 2003: Chemistry Final; Simons Reception "redo" @ 4pm. Um, NO, it actually got cancelled again. But that's OK---I had enough to do today. The chemistry final was like an AP exam but trickier...my score was decent, though. Some stroke of luck: Linda Hans of Annual Giving found my ID card at the Academic Mall on the 14th of August and returned it in time for the Final Exam (not that they ever bother looking at the picture). I got all $6.45 back (wasn't I a happy camper?)...and post lunch found me in great anticipation of Kevin Gee's 1996 paper on Single Beam Gradient Force Optical Trapping of Dielectric Particles. Unfortunately, the first "weeding" gave me only theory; I guess a second combing may have to take place for true "eureka" type learning, etc. Keep in mind Tuesday 2-7902 in Graduate Chemistry Room 467 with forms for Professor. Some buzzwords: deduction of nuclear spin through hyper-fine structure analysis and sublevel transitions due to electron and nuclear spin interaction; dual beam splitter; magic numbers: 87.9; satruated absorption spectroscopy; probe and pump beams; transition (James' project). Measured the y displacement of a rotation (and consequently, degree) of the microscope's fine adjustment knob. This will allow the calculation of the thickness of melted parafilm wax (which should be less than that of the original product). See tweezers page.

21 August 2003: Worked on CHem and Comparative in the Physics Library. Keep in mind that the PL is on the C level and not the D level (approximately above dad's office). Also undated obsessively and made numerous drawings in the tweezer reference (its 13 pages now...). Finished comparative chapter readings and had a very poor fencing lesson indeed (cherry coke sound familiar?).

20 August 2003: Class/Recitation. Left class early, picked up Simons materials, found out audition times (9 Sept 2342 10-13, 14-17 and 16 Sept 14-17). Accomplished focusing laser on bio specimen slide; looked at various lasers in catalog with Dr. Noe (pigtailed fibercoupled lasers). Search "coupling light into waveguides" and take a look at waveguide luninescence properties. Note: a beam block may not be immune to diffration!

19 August 2003: Really quite sick today...just ask Sandy. Made a number of sample rose chambers; viewed the laser on the screen; cleaned up setup and took many many pictures; need to achieve trapping ASAP (concise version). Figured out some infor about the "xfig" program (how to "draw lenses" and other optical tricks).

18 August 2003: Class is in session, power in University is back on; Garcia has its presentations; meet TINA SHIH and have dinner...(discuss post-secondary education plans) and her experiences abroad.

15 August 2003: 16:00 Siomons Reception in SAC Ballroom B (prepare a three-sentence acknowledgement/summary of the summer)==> cancelled event; no class either.

14 August 2003: I started the day by making a successful rose chamber of (guess what) pure water, just for testing purposes. Little did I know what that meant: the heat gun could not operate on a level between scorching and cool air; the parafilm refused to shape correctly, and the sample was always too large (it would hit the parafilm). By the time that was done, the stage of the microscope seemed stuck somehow...it would not even touch the immersion oil on the slide (all that work for nothing). I'm taking a break from the setup and updating the webpages (making a list in my email drafts is really useful). One BEC and website update later, I've got the stage rolling (apparently there was a piece stuck inside the gear). Minutes later, Professor Fortmann came by to check on my progress and gave me the option of buying fiber coupled diodes or ready made lasers...with the warning that I should keep the original project in mind. He also gave me a powerpoint presentation (SPIE 2003); I'll be busy for a while). At present, I'm leaning towards making my own (depending on the complexity of that task). Finally, Dr. Noe gave me some food for thought: a fiber coupled laser of 1 micro could be used for the TWEEZERS DEVICE! Blackout ("the most exciting thing that's happened all summer" ~Oleg); walk home from lab.

13 August 2003: Staying late helps research---about as much as explaining to someone else the problem. After the morning's chemistry test (I spent the better part of the test washing off the evidence of an inky explosion), I heard Evan Marshak talk about his project. I understood most of the intro, but as soon as he lanuched into the actual research, I was pretty lost. There were some interesting points made on relativity and the theoretical speed of a light wave...THe bulk of the day's work was more experience with verticalization and horizontalization of the beam from the periscope and trapping theory, which I hope to use tomorrow. I finally found out that the image of blurry laser light on the screen is not the direct beam, but an effect of the scattered light (a relief).

12 August 2003: I started the real technical stuff after figuring out the beam expansion (EARLY THIS MORNING). It's a little late in the summer, but I have the satisfaction of knowing how every part of the device works until the expansion. The microscope is going to be another story, same goes for the CCD. THink neutral density filter and vertical alignment...and a totally futile attempt to solve the gaussian integration problem at the mathlab. I did get a good idea (using the resources in Applied Math to solve the problem to a finite number of digits).

11 August 2003: (see friday's entry). More work on the abstracts (work means WORK). But at least it reads logically now (thanks to hours of pruning and rewriting). BY THE WAY! Staying until 8 pm DOES help research...James helped me figure out how the beam expansion works (think drawing pictures, forgetting equations, and using COMMON SENSE). And not te self: summing focal lengths is ALWAYS the answer, no matter what the problem is. Just pick the right lenses to begin with and you're set. So for triple beam expansion, use the 50mm and 150mm; for double beam, use the 50mm and 100mm lenses (converging lenses; put them at the sum of the focal points).

08 August 2003: MUST FINISH ABSTRACT BY TODAY~ Work Work Work! Keg party was interesting, especially the quasi-unsuccessful soda demolition attempt...better luck next time. Its 8pm and both are in shambles (when's dinner?).

07 August 2003: A DAY WITH NO PLANs! Actually...not really! I've an abstract due tomorrow and a project that is in pieces. Urszula really cleared up alot of things because reading things off a page is really different from actually manipulating the setup. It feels as if all I ever do is read articles or work on the tweezer alignment. Its almost ironic because the setup is always one of the less significant aspects of the project. Still, as I've heard many times before, working in physics allows you the liberty of sandals and coffee but comes with the price of ALIGNMENT! Anyway, I mean to finish the alignment today (to the point of trapping). I better get it done, because I've also two abstracts to write! It's about 11 right now, and I've accomplished quite a bit: the reflection of the laser lines up with the original beam, so it's dead on vertical (Sandy helped and rejoiced upon "verticalization"). Also, I moved the microscpoe back into the setup and secured it to the table. The only thing that wasn't solved this morning was light source problem: the lamp I've been using with the microscope always smells like burning rubber, and the light box coupled to the fiber optic is not divergent enough (though attaching a lens is n option).

06 August 2003: 12:30 Siomons Fellows Visit the Laser Teaching Center; 17:00 Urszula visits LTC! WHAT A DAY! Morning: Dad leaves for China, Mom and Julia leave for NYC and I am late for CLASS! No biggie; out of class; straight to LTC where the presentations have already begun...I felt bad walking into Maanit's presentation, but otherwise I would go straight to recitation! So I stopped in for Maanit's presentation and as I was leaving for class, I accepted the honor of presenting next...it was probably one of the worst presentations I've ever done, because first, I was mentally set on leaving quietly and just going to class...second, I had just walked out of a CHEMISTRY class...third, I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked...fourth, Maanit had just blown us all away with his fancy webpage and everything...and the list goes to infinity! I talked waaaayyyy too fast and waaaaayyyy too technically about the tweezers and basically forgot to cover GWO until Dr. Noe reminded me of it (and did a lousy ob of it, too). I actually enjoyed being in front of all the people, I was just unsure if they actually wanted to hear what I wanted to say...I stuttered alot, too (I usually don't...). Afterwards, it was alot more fun to tell the Siomons kids about the OT setup, and they enjoyed the rainbow glasses and the vodka bottle (cylindrical LENSES!). I went to class about an hour late and left in the middle to find my homework (only to MISS the laser light show and realize that the sacred piece of pink paper was elsewhere)...talk about unlucky! Getting to class late three times on the same day without homework is no fun...of course, I learned that the HARD way. My afternoon went alot better: I "borrowed" a french fry off of Thomas for lunch (around 3) and worked on my website and talked with Sandy (who now has an amazing website) until Urszula showed up! She's incredible...a biophysics graduate student working on the 6th floor of the Basic Science Tower of the Health Sciences Center (444-3531, Room 191), she has a SOLID STATE LASER in her $100 000 (US DOLLAR) Optical Tweezer setup. Urszula stayed for about two hours, and we talked and did more alignment on my OT setup (the one that's not even worth a dime...sniff sniff). Manipulation was a really painful process because the smallest shake to the table would mess everything up. We finally got the laser to travel through the periscope all collimated, and then the session was up. But before then, I learned that there is a TRICK to getting the beam vertical under the dichroic: use a pinhole and a flat mirror (have the image line up with the original object, THEN move the microscope back into that vertically aligned setup: pure genius!). So that's my task for tonight ((I'll be here until 9 or so) and I hope that something exciting may happen tomorrow! Urszula told me about how SLOW research is for her (her OT is down) as well as how physics doesn't pay (so you've really got to love it) and how the PhD MD programs and MedSchool itself can really SERIOUSLY overload a normal human being! It was amazing what she was able to clear up on the setup in that amount of time. Before leaving, Urszula told me about the NA and how to choose the right spherical lens combination for the specific objectve. I had read about this NAQ many, many, MANY times, but to actually interact with someone else who was involved in it...that was a totally different experience! Before leaving for the day, Dr. Noe found me a heap of biographies on the nobel prize winners Chu, Philips and Cohen-Tanoudji; they were incredibly interesting but I plan to finish them tomorrow. My goals for tomorrow include vertical alignment of the setup, finishing the articles, pudating the tweezer and gwo pages, WRITING THE ABSTRACT and etc etc. Also, I thought of the idea of investigating the dependence of trapping efficiency on percentage intensity loss --- still, I'd have to find a way to quantify trapping efficiency. Oh la la!

05 August 2003: Tomorrow is "Open House"! I spent the morning reading more on optical tweezers and then headed over to the music library, where I had my used a record player for the first time in my life! Little did I know that all you had to do was press the ON button after you set the needle down onto the record...at least the librarian got a kick out of watching my struggle. Anyways, it was worth it, because I listened to a record of Lin Cho-Liang play Mozart K. 219 with in incredibly interesting cadenza, one I've never heard before. He also played a cadenza before the final A going into the allegro aperto...not to mention phrased the bottom of the first page in a way I've never heard before in performance (a separation of the very notes violinists usually connect instinctually!). Lunch came soon after, and then hurried to the lab to figure out the next day's work. I added more to the GWO page, and did more reading of the photonics book. Laser shopping was also an event of the afternoon, though I simply found links to the appropriate products and sent them to Prof. Fortmann (I really hope to hear from him soon). At fencing, I finally figured out the feint attack move as well as the intentional miss and preparation-riposte under the arm though I still need practice executing all that I learn in lessons. More often, its a problem of confidence --- not skill. Of course, mirror work hasn't hurt anyone's fencing ... yet! I'm making gradual progress, though I regret that I didn't master these actions a long time ago...

04 August 2003: I took my second college test this morning; it was definitely easier than the first one (or maybe the first was "conditioning" for the harder tests to come?). My average is shockingly high---but I've only 250 out of 550 points to boast of...so the champagne can wait! Afterwards, I met dad and one of his colleagues for lunch. His colleague was actively presuding me that CalTech is the "best science school" and that being a student there is like "being a tritium atom with lasers focused on you from every angle possible" (he explained that the lasers feed you with as much science as you can absorb {and then some} in four short years). He obviously had a great time there, but also unilaterally declared that choosing a place for undergraduate study is a totally irrational decision. He seemed totally comfortable to be causing considerable consternation in the rising senior sitting less than a meter away from him; I'm guessing that I might meet quite a few of such characters later on (and this acclimation is for the better). After lunch, I found out the Wednesday is not a formal presentation; It will be a general tour of the Laser Teaching Center and instead of stressing about a power point, I updated by GWO site and started my laser shopping task.

01 August 2003: Our trip to Mario's for Allison's last day in NY was followe by an intense research session (after all, there WILL be a deadline for the abstract and a finite amount of time I can procrastinate...). Along with Jose, Patrick and the rest of the Siomons Students, I (atempted to) brainstorm ideas for the Wednesday demonstration. So far, the membrane laser show is not exceptionally dynamic --- but after coupling the speaker to a radio (instead of intermittent connection to three batteries) the patterns created were quite interesting to watch. As we worked (late afternoon), we listened to Kitka, a woman's vocal group stationed in Oakland CA that sings in Bulgarian---Allison agrees that the "wheeeeeeeee" was the best part of the song.

31 July 2003: REU PRESENTATIONS from 1 to 2 in S-240; Julia N starts to fence today! The presentations consumed the morning and a majority of the afternoon (in a single bite). Though I wasn't able to understand many of the details of the projects going on at BNL, I had fair grasp of the experimental concepts. One of the presenters had an artistic rendition of the quarks (top, bottom, strange, charm, up and down). Afterwards, Professor Metcalf gave a lecture on atomic clocks, which was surprisingly understandable. The lecture was amied at acquainting us with the subject of Matt Earley's Oral Exam (@ 10:30 AM on Tuesday 5 August 2003), which is actually "Atomic Clocks, Mode Locked Lasers and Frequency Combs".

30 July 2003: BNL TRIP w/Siomons Fellow, leave @ 08:45 from SAC circle (and no morning chemistry lecture attendance). I'm really looking forward to see the RHIC (relativistic heavy ion collider), which collides two beams of gold ions head on in an attempt to study the properties of subatomic matter. A subset of the RHIC is the PHENIX, a research group mainly interested in the high energy collisions of heavy ions and protons. There's also the Tandem Van De Graaff: if it was open for repairs, it would be pretty interesting to crawl inside (since we've already seen the USB VdG and heard all about its structural design and function). I've also head of the Synchotron, but I'm not sure of its research intentions. Most likely, the tour will be for a more general audience (and not just physics research)...we'll just have to see! So we saw the RHIC and the STAR at BNL as well as the Synchotron; unfortunately, nothing was operating. Recitation was rather tedious today; the thermodynamics problems were largely calculator exercises. Josè continued his lecture series around four; today's topics were different laser types and an introduction to the Transverse Electromagnetic Modes of the laaser (TEM₀₀, TEM₁₁ and TEM₂₂. In retrospect, the tour of BNL was interesting, especially since physics was the focus (its applications were all secondary). Unfortunately, none of the facilities we visited were in operation...better luck next time! I started thinking (not without serious exterior prompting) about the project(s): namely, the guided-wave optics setup with Professor Fortmann. At present, the main task is to gather the required equipment: ideally, a 1310nm or 1550nm single mode fiber coupled laser setup(~$4000) and a Germanium detector (~$300). I'll have to do more research into brands and prices, though the ThorLabs laser seemed very appropriate --- Dr. Noe also suggested inquiring after student discounts. I was really excited to get an email from Urszula, who said she would be willing to come around sometime to work on the setup (she had been quite busy, no doubt...). Later, Dr. Noe showed us (me and Sandy) the laser he made three decades ago (for $100) and digressed to Mr. Hough's website (Mr. Hough patented a program for analyzing sequence paths in a bubble chamber) and then mentioned that he had suggested a way of applying the Hough technique at Brookhaven National Lab's PHENIX experiment. The ironic part of the interaction was that Mr. Hough recently called Dr. Noe asking him about lasers capable of burning debris on the order of nanometers --- and Dr. Noe mentioned optical tweezers, piezoelectric levers and Richard Migliaccio (who does ceramic etching with lasers rented from the company Sandy's dad works for)! It's one very samll scientific community we're working in! Recitation was alright, but it was definitely too much calculation: not enough chemistry! Remind me never to buy ice creams from the SAC because one, they melt before you pay for them and two, the SAC ice creams must be embedded with gold nanoparticles or diamond or something (the prices are ASTRONOMICAL--naturally, I had finished more than half of the bar before paying so there was no was out of it!). ANYWAY! One of the things I still have to do is derive entropy (a personal goal), get the tweezers trapping, find funding and order the g. w. o. apparatus, write an abstract (or two) and get some projects off the ground! It sounds like its going to be a busy two weeks...(on top of having a ridiculously thick fraction of the chem book to digest~)

29 July 2003: I've resolved to make daily upadates on this research log (though I'm not sure how long that resolution will last). This morning started with some microscope exploration. Upon turning on the laser, the CCD camera yielded a screen with various pieces of debris. Oddly enough, there was nothing on the stage to produce such darkened images. What I was seeing was most likely dirt/dust settled on one of the optical components of the microscope (to be dealt with later). Still using the incandescent lamp as a light source, I attempted to view my rose chamber of latex spheres (d = 0.195 µm). I found a significant grid-like shadowy effect whenever the focus was directly over the sample, but my guess is that the packing of the spheres is too tight for viewing: a dilution of the solution may allow observation of individual spheres. I repaired the microscope stage with krazy glue ® (the previous hot glue reparation job failed miserably last fall). The field of view of the CCD camera seems to have shrunk from the last time I turned it on. After experimenting the with the distances between the camera and the microscope, I still have no clue as to why (a perception error?). After lunch, Josè gave a lecture on Lasers, Mode Structure and Grain, Cavity Length, Gaussian Profiles, instabilities and the famous HeNe laser. At the conclusion of this first lecture, we all agreed that Professor Josè would be a fitting title: the lecture was effective because it was informative yet paced to accomodate for our general lack of knowledge of lasers. Through simple mathematical models, I gained many insights: first, the two photons released by stimulated or spontaneous emission have the same energy, phase and polarization. Secondly, population inversion is impossible with only two energy levels; multiple level schemes are necessary to achieve population inversion. Also, spontaneous and simultaneous emission of radiation occurs whenever excited atomic frequencies couple with electromagnetic radiation (even in a vaccuum, there is EM radiation). We were also introduced to the Rayleigh Range, a property of the non-deal laser beam (it will diverge to a beam radius 2^.5*w of its original radius at a certain distance z determined by z = (pi)w^2/(wavelength). I had explored this myself earlier this summer, but it was beneficial to hear this in the context of laser properties and with a limited amount of mathematics. Lastly. GAIN is a measure of amplification for a iven frequency, and the message to remember from the power spectrum is that the mode with the highest gain steals all the power (keep chanting the mantra...) --- tomorrow's lecture will continue on the topics of Gaussian Optics and beam coherence. After the lecture, I worked with the microscope (without the laser beam); the only thing that will help here is reading and tweaking (same goes for the Guided-Wave Optics Project). The sabre calls ~

28 July 2003: Today was an intense lecture day...starting from the 9:30 Thermodynamics to the 13:00 Quantum Mechanics. Professor Tooker returned our exams today and explained the ridiculously generous grading curve to a sleepy morning class in which the average was a pitiable 56 (out of 100, not 60). Those with grades in the 20s and 30s were chastised; sStill, Professor Tooker seemed relatively pleased with the grade distribution: 11 average, 52 above and 54 below (but the fact that it was the first test forces us to withhold generalizations on where we stand). In today's lecture (which seemed to start hours after 9:30) I was slightly surprised to learn of K(sub>acidic, the K value for a salt in acid: though I've carried out that specific equilibrium endlessly, I never thought to combine the steps to form an overall reaction (most likely due to my intense loathing of the assumptions in acid-base equilibria...). Surprisingly, the Common Ion Effect and Le Chatelier's Principle were introduced today---AFTER the acid-base unit (whereas in previous chemistry classes, the CEI and the LCP were introduced with equilibrium). Professor Tooker then proceeded to thermodynamics (PROBABLY my absolute favorite topic in chemistry other than nuclear chemistry) and overviewed the basics, including the first law, state functions and intensive and extensive properties. Professor Tooker ended late; (we've grown accustomed to the extra hour) consequently, lunch felt like it was inhaled rather than properly eaten. I arrived at the LTC without missing anything significant (according to Sage); Professor Metcalf had already launched himself into a "hard core Quantum Mechanics Lecture" (he had promised that we would "do" QM today). The session started with a particle in a box; the box has 1-D, hard, infinitely high walls (the particle cannot escape) and potential energy inside the box was defined as zero. Additionally, the particle is in constant, horizontal motion. Professor Metcalf explained that these parameters were necessary for mathematical simplification and we would later find that our graphical analysis of the real portion of the wave function for this system would not need calculus (since the complex and time-dependent portions were omitted). Sine the wave function must be continuous, it followed that there were nodal points for the edges of the box (represented graphically as y = 0 on the wave function vs. position graph). Through a combination of discussion and lecture, we learned that the model for the particle's kinetic energy {E = p²/(2m) = h²/(8mL²)} is representative of a continuous spectrum analogous to that of electron energies in dye molecules and rotational energies (though the infrared range is usually not visible). Professor Metcalf also introduced the Principle of Superposition (the sum of two solutions to the wave equation for a particular system is also a solution). In that case, the particle is reputed to oscillate at the beat frequency (the difference of the two frequencies) but one component will decay to a lower state {state = mode}. At the conclusion of the lecture, I continued reading from the Saleh and Teich Photonics Book (so much to do, so little time!).

08 July 2003: My morning started with a comprehensive overview of research articles I had left upstairs. In particular, I reviewed a paper by MC Williams that outlined several optical tweezer setups (in light of their biological applications); the most interesting aspect of the paper was its description of a dual-beam configuration. I hope to attend a morning seminar given by a Canadian physicist: Beta Decay Studies @ TRIUMF Using Neutral Atom Traps (11AM, S-141).

07 July 2003: Derivation of the 2D cube corner deflection and Dr. Metcalf's lecture on the Fabry-Perot interferometer and unexpected observations (the uneven spacing between the relative maxima on the transmission vs separation graph) filled the beginning of the day. I also started my exploration of the transverse vs. longitudinal laser modes and researched the relation between the incident angle and beam diameter size (the fiber optic cable). A trip down to te machine shop allowed me to open the Inspector Gadget toy, which contained a small red lightbulb and a short fiber optic bundle (of questionable quality). Finally, I learned that the apparent problems of collimation are inherent: the shear plate (or even the collimation tester itself) cannot correct the nature of the emerging diode laser. At a certain point on the lateral projection of the beam, it narrows to a minimum width and all wavefronts appear parallel (also known as the "waist"). At a given distance from that plane, there is a parallel plane in which the wavefronts also appear parallel, but only because the spherical wavefront is at a great enough distance to appear planar (the sphere's large radius, ie, distance from waist, cause it to seem collimated at that point). Additionally, I remember studying the Rayleigh Effect (several weeks ago), which determines the maximum distance a beam can remain collimated. Finally, I ended my day with a series of unexplicable rings around a partially tranmitted, partially reflected laser beam...(the surface was uncoated glass, which is about 8% reflective).

03 July 2003: The morning warranted a trip to the Student Activities Center, where the Simons Fellows measured the diameter of the microwave grating (R = 1.0 mm), indicating that the wavelength a microwave is greater than a millimeter (its 10^-4 to 10^0 meters), because the microwave door is made to prevent the harmful low frequency radiation from escaping the chamber. Upon arrival at the laser teaching center, I made a list of things I needed to find, including the diffractive element, the box of laser pointer tips and the fiber optic cable. After talking with Dr. Noe, it became apparent that setups 2, 3, and 4 would be doomed projects for various reasons (see 02 July 2003 for setups 1, 2, 3, and 4). I found Xin Chen's 2002 site on CCD cameras to be quite helpful in understanding the operations of the device and his research in tweezers to be interesting (though not previously unencountered). We had lunch with Dr. Metcalf, who had recently returned from his sabbatical at the University of Utrecht. He suggested projects to several REU and Simons students, whith the most interesting ones including the ability of a flat-sailed sailboat's ability to sail against the wind and government involvement in reseach of reflectors (and a 3D cube corner proof). After lunch, we finally visited the Van De Graaff, where we found some of the most ingenious engineering for operation and safety. For example, the plates inside the Van De Graaff are tilted and smploy a rectangular slit to allow the heavily charged ions through but prevent the passage of electrons (which represent an X-ray hazard). Also, to turn the charged particles in their paths, the Van De Graaff employs an "ion redirector" which is analogous to a mirror for a diode laser. An application of the Lorentz formula (F = qv x B) allows the ionized particles to travel corners without losing energy. Additionally, the use of a quadrapole lens is the magnetic equvalent of a cylinder lens. We also talked about the Principle of Strong Focus, which states that when a beam is focused and then defocused (or vice versa), the net effect is always focusing. We also saw the resonators (which had to be solid and smooth), the cyclotron, and projected reasons for the presence of a small mountain of paraffin wax.

02 July 2003:

01 July 2003:

30 June 2003: (Day 1 of Simons)

26 June 2003:

25 June 2003:

24 June 2003: -----------

25 March 2003: Tweezer setup is offically mine but a disaster; completed the thin lens derivation (see lab book page 15). Also competed procedures for Turning on the Setup and Rose Chamber Construction (see lab book page 17).

24 March 2003: Re-measured the focal distances of the two lenses in sunlight; reviewed the paraxial approximations; calculated spot sizes due to spherical abberation

05 February 2003: Meeting with Waldo and Urszula (emails: waldo@inorbit.com; urszula@ale.physics.sunysb.edu) and worked on realigning the entire setup (remeasured focal distances, worked on angles of mirrors and lenses).

01 December 2002: Made list of questions to answer (Diffractive optics; check lab book). Witnessed Newton's Rings (2 microscope slies), and used diffraction grading and polarizing plates. Saw the pink/red glow of the HeNe laser.

02 November 2002: Made Rose Chambers (yeast cell slides); looked at the optimal beam angles and objective fillings (optimization attempts by Waldo and Peter, respectively). Introduced to various methods of measuring trapping power, all employing the use of a "force" to dislodge a trapped particle (data taken this way contains multitudes of error). Learned that the trapping power is NOT directly proportional to the incident intensty of the laser beam. First observation of trapping on TV (quite cumbersome process)

23 September 2002:

21 September 2002:

14 September 2002:

13 September 2002: Talks on BOUND CHARGE (mechanism for the emission and absorption of radiation energy) and the different types of interference(total constructive/destructive). Also learned of the reflection, refraction, diffraction, polarization and scattering of light.

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