Doctor of Philosophy / Physics / Amitabha Chakrabarti / The aim of this work is to explore, using computational techniques that simulate the motion and subsequent aggregation of particles in aerosol and colloidal systems, many common but not well studied systems that form fractal clusters. Primarily the focus is on cluster shape and growth kinetics. The structure of clusters made under diffusion limited cluster-cluster aggregation (DLCA) is looked at. More specifically, the shape anisotropy is found to have an inverse relationship on the scaling prefactor "k"_"0" and have no effect on the fractal dimension "D"_"f". An analytical model that predicts the shape and fractal dimension of diffusion limited cluster-cluster aggregates is tested and successfully predicts cluster shape and dimensionality. Growth kinetics of cluster-cluster aggregation in the free molecular regime where the system starts with ballistic motion and then transitions to diffusive motion as the aggregates grow in size is studied. It is shown that the kinetic exponent will crossover from the ballistic to the diffusional values and the onset of this crossover is predicted by when the nearest neighbor Knudsen number reaches unity. Simulations were carried out for a system in which molten particles coalesce into spheres, then cool till coalescing stops and finally the polydispersed monomers stick at point contacts to form fractal clusters. The kinetic exponent and overall cluster structure for these aggregates was found to be in agreement with DLCA that started with monodispersed monomers. Colloidal aggregation in the presence of shear was studied in detail. Study of a colloidal system characterized a by short-range attractive potential showed that weak shear enhanced the aggregation process. Strong shear led to fragmentation and subsequent nucleation as cluster growth rebounded after an induction time.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Physics / Yurii Maravin / In this thesis, the first measurement of Z(vv̄)[photon] cross section in pp collisions at [square root of]s = 7 TeV has been done using data collected by the CMS detector. The measured cross section is 21.3 ± 4.2 (stat.) ± 4.3 (syst.) ± 0.5 (lumi.) fb. This measurement is based on the observations of events with missing transverse energy in excess of 130 GeV and photon in the rapidity range [eta] < 1.44 of transverse momentum in excess of 145 GeV in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 fb⁻¹. This measured cross section is in good agreement with the theoretical prediction of 21.9 ± 1.1 fb from BAUR. Further, neutral triple gauge couplings involving Z bosons and photons have been studied. No evidence for the presence of such couplings is observed and is in agreement with the predictions of the standard model. We set the most stringent limits to date on these triple gauge couplings.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Physics / Kristan L. Corwin / Portable frequency references are crucial for many practical on-site applications, for example, the Global Position System (GPS) navigation, optical communications, and remote sensing. Fiber laser optical frequency combs are a strong candidate for portable reference systems. However, the conventional way of locking the comb repetition rate, frep, to an RF reference leads to large multiplied RF instabilities in the optical frequency domain. By stabilizing a comb directly to an optical reference, the comb stability can potentially be enhanced by four orders of magnitude. The main goal of this thesis is to develop techniques for directly referencing optical frequency combs to optical references toward an all-fiber geometry. A big challenge for direct fiber comb spectroscopy is the low comb power. With an 89 MHz fiber ring laser, we are able to optically amplify a single comb tooth from nW to mW (by a factor of 10^6) by building multiple filtering and amplification stages, while preserving the comb signal-to-noise ratio. This amplified comb tooth is directly stabilized to an optical transition of acetylene at ~ 1539.4 nm via a saturated absorption technique, while the carrier-envelope offset frequency, f0, is locked to an RF reference. The comb stability is studied by comparing to a single wavelength (or CW) reference at 1532.8 nm. Our result shows a short term instability of 6 x10^(-12) at 100 ms gate time, which is over an order of magnitude better than that of a GPS-disciplined Rb clock. This implies that our optically-referenced comb is a suitable candidate for a high precision portable reference. In addition, the direct comb spectroscopy technique we have developed opens many new possibilities in precision spectroscopy for low power, low repetition rate fiber lasers. For single tooth isolation, a novel cross-VIPA (cross-virtually imaged phase array) spectrometer is proposed, with a high spectral resolution of 730 MHz based on our simulations. In addition, the noise dynamics for a free space Cr:forsterite-laser-based frequency comb are explored, to explain the significant f0 linewidth narrowing with knife insertion into the intracavity beam. A theoretical model is used to interpret this f0 narrowing phenomenon, but some unanswered questions still remain.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Physics / Brett D. DePaola / Direct frequency comb spectroscopy (DFCS) is currently the highest resolution, absolute frequency spectroscopic technique known. In general, one does DFCS by scanning the repetition rate, f[subscript]r[subscript]e[subscript]p, of a comb laser and measuring fluorescence from the excited states of the specie under study. The technique has already been successfully characterized by a theoretical model that starts with the optical Bloch equations and, with a few simplifying assumptions converts them into linear coupled iterative equations. In the present work we build on that successful model to predict the characteristics of the ion yield from photoionization by the comb laser, as a function of f[subscript]r[subscript]e[subscript]p. We show that the ion spectrum yields the same atomic structure as the fluorescence spectra, but with greater efficiency. Here, we also set up an experiment and test this theory by measuring the ion signal from direct frequency comb spectroscopy. Furthermore, instead of actively controlling the frequency comb parameters, we allow them to drift, passively measuring them and the ion signal simultaneously. The experiments were found to be in agreement with theory, and the passive comb approach was found to be functional, though not as convenient as the conventional active comb.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Physics / Brian R. Washburn / Mode-locked lasers that produce short optical pulses in the mid-infrared wavelength region have been sought out for a wide range of applications such as free space communication, molecular spectroscopy, medical diagnostics, and remote sensing. Here, a thulium and holmium (Tm/Ho) co-doped fiber laser that mode-locks in both the solitonic and stretched-pulse regimes is used to produce ultra-short pulses in the 2 [mu]m region. Nonlinear polarization rotation technique is used where fiber nonlinearity is responsible to mode-lock the laser. The anomalous group velocity dispersion of both the single mode and gain fibers used limit the laser operation in the solitonic regime where spectral bandwidth is 10 nm and hence the pulse duration is limited to 996 fs. In order to increase the spectral bandwidth and hence get the shorter pulses the anomalous dispersion of these fibers has to compensate using normal group velocity dispersion fiber in the laser cavity. High numerical aperture fibers, which have normal group velocity dispersion around 2 [mu]m due to its large and positive waveguide dispersion, can be used to compensate the anomalous dispersion of the gain and single mode fibers. We used a high numerical aperture fiber called UHNA4 in the laser cavity in order to compensate the anomalous dispersion of other fibers and mode-locked the laser in stretched pulse regime. The spectral bandwidth of the laser increased to 31 nm with corresponding pulse duration of 450 fs measured from the interferometric autocorrelation. The laser dynamics of the Tm/Ho co-doped fiber laser is also studied while going from the stretched-pulse to solitonic regime by fiber cut-back measurements of normal dispersion fiber. It was clearly observed that both the spectral bandwidth and the pulse duration changed significantly going from one region to the other.

Master of Science / Department of Physics / Brian Washburn / Zenghu Chang / Attosecond pulse generation is a powerful tool to study electron dynamics in atoms and molecules. However, application of attosecond pulses is limited by the low photon flux of attosecond sources. Theoretical models predict that the harmonic efficiency scales as λ[lambda]-6 in the plateau region of the HHG spectrum, where λ [lambda] is the wavelength of the driving laser. This indicates the possibility of generating more intense attosecond pulses using short wavelength driving lasers. The purpose of this work is to find a method to generate intense single attosecond pulses using a 400 nm driving laser. In our experiments, 400 nm femtosecond laser pulses are used to generate high harmonics. First, the dependence of the high harmonic generation yield on the ellipticity of 400 nm driving laser pulse is studied experimentally, and it is compared with that of 800 nm driving lasers. A semi-classical theory is developed to explain the ellipticity dependence where the theoretical calculations match experiment results very well. Next, 400 nm short pulses (sub-10 fs) are produced with a hollow core fiber and chirped mirrors. Finally, we propose a scheme to extract single attosecond pulses with the Generalized Double Optical Gating (GDOG) method.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Physics / Brett DePaola / Zenghu Chang / Extremely broad bandwidth attosecond pulses (which can support 16as pulses) have been demonstrated in our lab based on spectral measurements, however, compensation of intrinsic chirp and their characterization has been a major bottleneck. In this work, we developed an attosecond streak camera using a multi-layer Mo/Si mirror (bandwidth can support ~100as pulses) and position sensitive time-of-flight detector, and the shortest measured pulse was 107.5as using DOG, which is close to the mirror bandwidth. We also developed a PCGPA based FROG-CRAB algorithm to characterize such short pulses, however, it uses the central momentum approximation and cannot be used for ultra-broad bandwidth pulses. To facilitate the characterization of such pulses, we developed PROOF using Fourier filtering and an evolutionary algorithm. We have demonstrated the characterization of pulses with a bandwidth corresponding to ~20as using synthetic data. We also for the first time demonstrated single attosecond pulses (SAP) generated using GDOG with a narrow gate width from a multi-cycle driving laser without CE-phase lock, which opens the possibility of scaling attosecond photon flux by extending the technique to peta-watt class lasers. Further, we generated intense attosecond pulse trains (APT) from laser ablated carbon plasmas and demonstrated ~9.5 times more intense pulses as compared to those from argon gas and for the first time demonstrated a broad continuum from a carbon plasma using DOG. Additionally, we demonstrated ~100 times enhancement in APT from gases by switching to 400 nm (blue) driving pulses instead of 800 nm (red) pulses. We measured the ellipticity dependence of high harmonics from blue pulses in argon, neon and helium, and developed a simple theoretical model to numerically calculate the ellipticity dependence with good agreement with experiments. Based on the ellipticity dependence, we proposed a new scheme of blue GDOG which we predict can be employed to extract intense SAP from an APT driven by blue laser pulses. We also demonstrated compression of long blue pulses into >240 µJ broad-bandwidth pulses using neon filled hollow core fiber, which is the highest reported pulse energy of short blue pulses. However, compression of phase using chirp mirrors is still a technical challenge.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Physics / Nobel S. Rebello / This research project investigates the difficulties students encounter when solving physics problems involving the integral and the area under the curve concepts and the strategies to facilitate students learning to solve those types of problems. The research contexts of this project are calculus-based physics courses covering mechanics and electromagnetism. In phase I of the project, individual teaching/learning interviews were conducted with 20 students in mechanics and 15 students from the same cohort in electromagnetism. The students were asked to solve problems on several topics of mechanics and electromagnetism. These problems involved calculating physical quantities (e.g. velocity, acceleration, work, electric field, electric resistance, electric current) by integrating or finding the area under the curve of functions of related quantities (e.g. position, velocity, force, charge density, resistivity, current density). Verbal hints were provided when students made an error or were unable to proceed. A total number of 140 one-hour interviews were conducted in this phase, which provided insights into students’ difficulties when solving the problems involving the integral and the area under the curve concepts and the hints to help students overcome those difficulties. In phase II of the project, tutorials were created to facilitate students’ learning to solve physics problems involving the integral and the area under the curve concepts. Each tutorial consisted of a set of exercises and a protocol that incorporated the helpful hints to target the difficulties that students expressed in phase I of the project. Focus group learning interviews were conducted to test the effectiveness of the tutorials in comparison with standard learning materials (i.e. textbook problems and solutions). Overall results indicated that students learning with our tutorials outperformed students learning with standard materials in applying the integral and the area under the curve concepts to physics problems. The results of this project provide broader and deeper insights into students’ problem solving with the integral and the area under the curve concepts and suggest strategies to facilitate students’ learning to apply these concepts to physics problems. This study also has significant implications for further research, curriculum development and instruction.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Physics / Vinod Kumarappan / In this thesis, our work on developing new techniques to measure and enhance field-free molecular alignment and orientation is described. Non-resonant femtosecond laser pulses are used to align and orient rotationally-cold gas-phase molecules. The time-dependent Schrodinger equation is solved to simulate the experimental results. A single-shot kHz velocity map imaging (VMI) spectrometer is developed for characterizing 1D and 3D alignment. Stimulated by a novel metric for 3D alignment proposed by Makhija et al. [Phys. Rev. A 85,033425 (2012)], a multi-pulse scheme to improve 3D alignment is demonstrated experimentally on difluoro-iodobenzene molecules and the best field-free 3D alignment is achieved. A degenerate four wave mixing probe is developed to overcome limitations in VMI measurement; experiments on different types of molecules show good agreement with computational results. Highly aligned linear molecules are used for high harmonic generation experiments. Due to the high degree of alignment, fractional revivals, variation of revival structure with harmonic order and the shape resonance and Cooper minimum in the photoionization cross section of molecular nitrogen are all observed directly in experiment for the first time. Enhanced orientation from rotationally cold heteronuclear molecules is also demonstrated. We follow the theory developed by Zhang et al. [Phys. Rev. A 83, 043410 (2011)] and demonstrate experimentally for the first time that for rotationally cold carbon monoxide an aligning laser pulse followed by a two-color laser pulse can increase field-free orientation level by almost a factor of three compared to using just the two-color pulse.

Doctor of Philosophy / Physics / Brett D. Esry / In strong field physics, complex atomic and molecular motions can be triggered and steered by an ultrashort strong field. With a given pulse as an carrier-envelope form, E(t) = E₀(t) cos(ωt + φ), we established our photon-phase formalism to decompose the solution of a time-dependent Schrödinger equation in terms of photons. This formalism is further implemented into a general analysis scheme that allows extract photon information direct from the numerical solution. The φ-dependence of any observables then can be understood universally as an interference effect of different photon channels. With this established, we choose the benchmark system H₂⁺ to numerically study its response to an intense few-cycle pulse. This approach helps us identify electronic, rovibrational transitions in terms of photon channels, allowing one to discuss photons in the strong field phenomena quantitatively. Furthermore, the dissociation pathways are visualized in our numerical calculations, which help predicting the outcome of dissociation. Guided by this photon picture, we explored the dissociation in a linearly polarized pulse of longer wavelengths (compared to the 800 nm of standard Ti:Saphire laser). We successfully identified strong post-pulse alignment of the dissociative fragments and found out that such alignment exists even for heavy molecules. More significant spatial asymmetry is confirmed in the longer wavelength regime, because dissociation is no longer dominated by a single photon process and hence allowed for richer interference. Besides, quantitative comparison between theory and experiment have been conducted seeking beyond the qualitative features. The discrepancy caused by different experimental inputs allows us to examine the assumptions made in the experiment. We also extend numerical studies to the dissociative ionization of H₂ by modeling the ionization.