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International Conference on Spectroscopic Ellipsometry Boulder, Colorado, 2025
Seven students attended this conference where 200+ scientists from all over the world shared their work related to ellipsometry, a technique used extensively in our lab. The students presented their work and had the opportunity to intermingle with world-experts on ellipsometry.
Kenyon Group with Professor David Aspnes who won a Lifetime Achievement award for his pioneering work in the field of ellipsometry
Kenyon Group with Professor David Aspnes who won a Lifetime Achievement award for his pioneering work in the field of ellipsometry
Kenyon Group with Professor John Woollam ('61) who also won a Lifetime Achievement award for his pioneering work in the field of ellipsometry
Kenyon Group with Professor John Woollam ('61) who also won a Lifetime Achievement award for his pioneering work in the field of ellipsometry
Kenyon Group with Dr. Jay Jellison who has contributed extensively to develop the field of ellipsometry
Kenyon Group with Dr. Jay Jellison who has contributed extensively to develop the field of ellipsometry
Sam Kovach presenting his poster
Sam Kovach presenting his poster
Dilara Sen presenting her poster
Dilara Sen presenting her poster
Hatim Saeed & Owen Peterson presnting their poster
Hatim Saeed & Owen Peterson presnting their poster
Take a Bow Olivia Fairlamb
Take a Bow Olivia Fairlamb
Presenting her findings to some world-experts on ellipsometry, Olivia Fairlamb won an award for her poster at the conference, an impressive achievement considering that the majority of posters were presented by graduate students from all over the world.
Farewell Sam & Dilara
Farewell Sam & Dilara
Sam Kovach, who worked in our lab for 3.5 years on organic thin films, semiconductors and DFT calculations, graduated in 2025. He will pursue a Ph.D. program in Physics at Washington University (St. Louis) in the Fall. Dilara Sen, who was instrumental in implementing a magneto optical Kerr effect system in our lab, also graduated in 2025. She will pursue a Ph.D. program in Physics at Northwestern University.
TO THE FINISH LINE
Three students from our group, Owen, Hatim & Jackson got their work published recently in a reputed journal in our field. By carefully analyzing in situ ellipsometry spectra of a PtSe2 film, they were able to recover the layer-dependent dielectric functions of this material. As shown below, the dielectric functions are obtained from a single film grown via molecular beam epitaxy.
Dilara Sen & Sam Kovach Receives Highest Honors
Dilara Sen & Sam Kovach Receives Highest Honors
Dilara's project was to implement a MOKE system to complement the ellipsometry measurements in our lab. This will enable us to study the magnetic properties of thin films. Sam pursued a project to implement DFT calculations to corroborate our experimental findings on various thin films.
Attending the APS March Meeting, Anaheim, CA, 2025
Six students presented their work at this International Conference attended by nearly 14,000 Scientists.
Olivia Fairlamb '26
Dilara Sen '25
Owen Peterson & Hatim Saeed
Sam Kovach '25
Jackson Neidel '26
2024/25 Group Photo
Seated: Sam Kovach, Frank Peiris, Dilara Sen
Standing: Hatim Saeed, Jackson Niedel, Ian Switzer, Olivia Fairlamb, Joey Liu, Owen Peterson, Will Ehrlich
Summer Science Poster Presentation, Kenyon, October, 2024
Sam Kovach '25
Olivia Fairlamb '26
Dilara Sen '25
Owen Peterson '26
Hatim Saeed '26
Jackson Neidel '26
Summer Science '24 Physics + Fun
Carrom, Cricket, Biking, B'day Celebrations
Honorary Guest
Honorary Guest
Visits our Lab
Visits our Lab
Professor John Woollam ('61), an world-expert in ellipsometry, a techniques widely used in our lab, inspired us with his wise words during a brief visit in May '24. J. A. Woollam company, started by him in 1987, is now a worldwide leader in spectroscopic ellipsometry.
Farewell Liz
Farewell Liz
Liz Houser, who worked in our lab for 3.5 years graduated in 2024. She will pursue a Ph.D. in Material Science at Penn State in the Fall. Besides training and inspiring her fellow-students in the lab, Liz published two articles. She was the first author on one of the publications.
Optical Properties of Scandium Nitrite Published in Applied Physics Letters 123, 112102 (2023)
Optical Properties of Scandium Nitrite Published in Applied Physics Letters 123, 112102 (2023)
Physics Department Poster Session December, 2023
Hatim Saeed, Liz Houser, Sam Kovach and Hunter Strah presenting their work.
2023/24 Group Photo
Front row: Liz Houser, Ben Hoffer, Sam Kovach
Back row: Olivia Fairlamb, Hunter Strah, Dilara Sen, Frank Peiris, Hatim Saeed, Owen Peterson,
Our Work is Published in Nature Photonics
Our Work is Published in Nature Photonics
In collaboration with Professor Jariwala’s group at UPenn, we examined the optical properties of FePS3, a van der Waals antiferromagnetic insulator that shows enhanced linear dichroism properties.
Nature Photonics, 16, 311 (2022)
Celebrating with 2022 Graduates
Celebrating with 2022 Graduates
Advisees & Lab Students
Advisees & Lab Students
Game of tap-rugby & dinner afterwards
Photoionization Experiments
Photoionization Experiments
We are now able to mount a Linkam Stage into the ellipsometer and perform photoionization experiments on organic thin films. These films consisting of azobenzene molecules which undergo structural changes when a laser is directed on them. These changes are manifested in the index of refraction.
Game of Cricket with Summer Science Students
Game of Cricket with Summer Science Students
APS March Meeting 2019, Boston
APS March Meeting 2019, Boston
Ellipsometry + Reflectivity
Ellipsometry + Reflectivity
We now have a method to determine the dielectric functions down to ~10 meV by combining ellipsometry and FTIR.
By combining these two techniques, we can obtain the dielectric functions of materials in the far-IR regions where their phonons influence the dilectric functions.
Kenyon Poster Session, 2017
Kenyon Poster Session, 2017
Oliver Vandenberg & Vincent Lewis presenting their work
Summer Cricket
Summer Cricket
Ellie Holmgren trying to bowl-out Ryan Muzzio while he cleverly offers an unorthodox defensive shot. Vicent Lewis is thinking of baseball while at the non-striker's end. Kendall Vanderhoof is the wicketkeeper.
Breathalyzer
Breathalyzer
Using a silica-based mesoporous film, synthesized using a self-assembled method, a breathalyzer-like device was produced. Because ethanol gets incorporated into the pores of the film, the original optical reflectivity undergoes a conspicuous shift, as shown. When the ethanol is flushed out, the original spectrum is recovered.
APS March Meeting 2017, New Orleans
APS March Meeting 2017, New Orleans
Ellie Crawford '17 wins Goldwater
Ellie Crawford '17 wins Goldwater
Exploring the physics of surface plasmons, Ellie has mapped out optical signatures associated with protein-protein binding using spectroscopic techniques.
Bio Sensor
Bio Sensor
Ellipsometry was used to detect the protein-protein binding that occurs on a gold surface. The surface alterations can be detected by monitoring the changes to the surface plasmon resonance.
Students Performing 'cool' Exps
Students Performing 'cool' Exps
Low-temperature ellipsometry measurements
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