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This work is funded in part by the National Science Foundation, Grant #s ???? and ???? and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Grant # ????
710 N. Pleasant St.
619 E LGRT-B
Amherst, MA 01003
413. 545.1879
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Undergraduate researchers play an important role in all our projects - from soldering
cables to building ultra-low temperature cryogenic refrigerators. We are
happy to train young, energetic students in the arts of applied physics and
instrumentation.
Motivated and dedicated Sophomores and Juniors from the Five College system are welcome to come by the lab to discuss possible employment opportunites. Jobs range from full-time summer research work to part-time (10
hours per week or more) work during the academic year. Work study students,
women, and members of minority groups are strongly encouraged to apply.
Here is a sampling of some previous research projects taken on by undergraduates who worked
in the CDL over the past few years:
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Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerators - An ADR cools a sample using the magnetic field
dependence of the entropy of a paramagnetic salt. We use ferric ammonium
alum (FAA) as our refrigerant. Starting from a pumped helium bath
temperature of 1.4 K, it is possible to achieve temperatures as low as 40 mK
with an FAA ADR - or, by controlling the magnetic field applied to the
salt, to maintain a selected temperature between 40 mK and 1.4 K. As an
integral portion of our detector testing facility, Josh Snyderand Tim Brothers built and tested a complete ADR system. The entire project took a little over one year but
this ADR remains in active use in the lab.
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Laboratory Data Acquisition Systems - We have developed a miniaturized 16-bit, 32
channel laboratory data acquistion system which runs off a small linux
computer. What started as a laboratory convenience has blossomed into a
real enterprise, with three of these systems now in constant use in the lab
(and another needed!) and several others now in use by our collaborators at
the University of Chicago, NASA/GSFC, and Case Western University. Kevin Kingsburry, Angela Murphy, and Ed Slavich have all played a
role in both building these systems and writing code for performing various
tasks.
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A Differential Fourier Transform Spectrometer - Understanding the spectral
response of a system is critical to interpreting its output. In order to
measure the various mm and submm-wave filters and optics we use in our
cameras, we have built a differential fourier transform spectrometer (FTS)
for laboratory use. Our FTS is a copy of the COBE/FIRAS design - providing us
with a dual-polarization, fully differential instrument. Josh Snyder, Angela Murphy, and Ed Slavich (working with
graduate student Dan Logan) have all been essential in bringing this
instrument together over the past two years. First light of our FTS was
detected on August 22nd, 2003 and the first spectrum was taken shortly after.
Optics Modeling for the LMT - Once the BOLOCAM II and SPEED instruments are completed, we will need to couple them both optically and mechanically to the Large Millimeter
Telescope. As part of a summer research internship, Maggie McKeon from Amherst College learned how to work with ZEMAX, an optical modeling tool, and put together a
"straw-man" design for the coupling mirrors between the BOLOCAM II
instrument and the LMT cass focus. Andrea Tinney has carried on with this work and is now actively designing BCII coupling optics.
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