Student Projects

Schlieren Imaging

During a new course, PHY 355 Applied Physics Laboratory, students designed and implemented a schlieren imaging system as part of the course. Students tested various masks for covid-19 reduction and analyzed the fluid flow of a person's breath using their schlieren setup. Some photos of the experiments are shown below. They also utilized an atmospheric pressure plasma jet to study the dependence of flow parameters on plasma jet behavior.

Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet

Connor Belt was a student in my courses and he has designed numerous components for the lab. He used schlieren imaging to understand gas shielding effects on an argon atmospheric pressure plasma jet. His research will be presented at the 64th APS-DPP meeting.

Multiple atmospheric pressure plasma sources were developed by students as part of an applied physics laboratory course and are shown here. Students analyzed basic plasma parameters using Lissajous plots and an oscilloscope.

Complex Plasma

A significant part of the research in my lab is based on complex plasma and there are multiple experiments involving students. At Auburn University, I mentored Leo Burdett in a project to develop a high precision vacuum chamber for studies of plasma crystals. Here are some photos of Leo working on the chamber and an illuminated dust particle cloud during experiments.

Plasma Catalysis

At Princeton University I studied plasma assisted ammonia synthesis. I worked with and mentored one undergraduate student (Zihan Lin) and a graduate student (Zhe Chen). We designed multiple reactors to test the efficiency of reaction mechanisms for plasma assisted catalysis of ammonia synthesis.