SURF Program 2023
SURF Program 2023
Correcting Phonon and Quasiparticle Dynamics in Geant4 Simulation of Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs)
Correcting Phonon and Quasiparticle Dynamics in Geant4 Simulation of Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs)
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Company/Group: Caltech, Golwala Lab
Company/Group description: The Golwala group builds microwave kinetic inductance inductors (KIDs) for detecting dark matter.
Role Title: SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships) Student, Robert L. Blinkenberg SURF Fellow
Role description: Help revitalize a previous student's work on simulating KIDs incoperating new experimental data
Duration: June 2023 - August 2023
Deliverables: Presented findings at Caltech Astro weekly seminar and for my SURF Final Presentation
My Role
My Role
Investigated the influence of phonon physics on Geant4-simulated KID performance
Discovered simulation issues with disproportionate gap-energy phonon generation and absorption by KIDs closest to the initial energy deposit.
Contributed to discussion of implementing different quasiparticle scattering and recombination time constants
My Work
My Work
The below contain all technial details of my work.
My final report
My final presentation
My experience
My experience
Me after not getting a SURF in n<5 tries
Getting a research position is a nontrival process
I'd heard that getting a research position for SURF at Caltech was pretty easy. It's a small school so there's lots of opportunities and all you have to is ask...or so I thought.
With a false sense of confidence, I didn't start apply for SURF labs until right before winter break (the SURF application deadline was late February). I underwent an application process with one lab only. The process was lengthy but I felt confident I'd get the position so I didn't bother seeking other opportunities.
Unfortunately, the lab had to reject me due to funding issues. This left me scrambling for other opportunities just a few weeks before the SURF deadline! I reached out to upperclassmen to see which places were likely to accept me and applied to multiple positions at the same time. I ended up getting into the Golwala lab!
Teamwork is more than a division of tasks
My project was initially supposed to be just me, but when the summer came another student (Mira, a physics major) was added to my project. Our mentors gave us some starter tasks and my initial idea was to split these tasks with Mira. However Mira decided to focus on a different aspect of the project and this wasn't necessary.
Because of our different areas of focus Mira was able to explain to me a lot of the finer details of the experiemental data and physics behind the detectors. And I was able to explain to them more of the software aspects of how the simulaton code worked.
Mira teaching me physics
Two different types of confusion. One very bad meme.
Having a sense of direction is crucial
Before I had a sense of direction, one of my mentors asked me to try things in the simultion and I would try them. I was completing a series of trial-and-error tasks and I felt like I was collecting information, but not in a meaningful way.
About three weeks into the program, my subgroup called a meeting with the PI to discuss what we knew and refine our approach. Defining a large, longer-term goal helped me work on various parts of the simulation with my own sense of direction. I no longer needed my mentors to give me specific tasks, because I knew how to take my own steps towards understanding the problem.
In the future I would call a meeting with a PI/higher up earlier into my work. Lower-level mentors are really helpful for tackling specifics, but those higher up on the chain give valuable insight about what approach to take.
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