Research in the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry group as well as NAUTILUS group

Looking for Physics students interested in working in our Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) group. We currently have a number of projects that need extra help. All of the projects will ultimately result in actual beam-time on our accelerator and all students will help running experiments on the FN accelerator. Our group currently has 3 undergraduates working in it.

  1. Radiocarbon dating: The group has a radiocarbon program dedicated to measuring 14C in samples. This program also involves the chemical preparation of samples (graphitization) and, as such, is very well suited for students with interest in both Chemistry and Physics. This program will also be run in colaboration with Prof. Manukyan's group.
  2. Detector tests: Our new detector, built and designed by the students in our group, is in its final stages of construction and the Spring will see the beginning of its test phase as well as in beam test on our Spectrograph. Calvin Bacall the lead undergraduate on this project will need help with all the different testing phases associated with the implementation of this cutting-edge detector.
  3. NAUTILUS: Notre Dame has recently received an Accelerator System from the Navy (Specificaly the Navy Research Laboratory, NRL) and this Spring will see the first stages of its reassembly. Undergraduate students interested in the reassembly of this Single Stage AMS platform and SIMS instrument will have the unique experience of participating in its reasembly. This project is also very well suited for Engineering students as it will involve many different aspects of Engineering. This project will be done in Collaboration with Prof. Hixon from the ND Energy center.

 

Name of research group, project, or lab
AMS group in the NSL lab.
Why join this research group or lab?

This research group has always had an importent undergraduate component in its research program. Students will get trainiung on a number of accelerators in operation at the Nuclear Science Laboratory (NSL), will be encouraged to take ownership of their research project and will be encouraged to present at National and International conferences and be co-authors (and even First authors) on publications. 

Just last week a Senior physics major, Griffin Mulcahy, presented their work on developping an AMS detcetion method for 53Mn at the "16th International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry" in Guilin China. They were the only undergraduate selected for a presentation at this important international conference in one of the main sessions of the conference.

Diversity – in every form – is one of the most important success factors for our group. Because as diverse as our applications and projects, so diverse are our group members who all bring a diverse and different, yet important, point of view to the difficult problesm we face.

Representative publication
Logistics Information:
Project categories
Physics & Astronomy
Student ranks applicable
First Year
Sophomore
Junior
Student qualifications

Students should be interested in developing their own independance as researchers

Hours per week
1 credit / 3-6 hours
2 credits / 6-12 hours
Compensation
Research for Credit
Number of openings
2
Techniques learned

General Lab training, Accelerator Operator training, use of Software such as Conductor, LabView, 3DSMax, SRIM, etc...

Project start
As soon as possible, but Spring 2025 is the general target
Contact Information:
Mentor
pcollon@nd.edu
Professor
Name of project director or principal investigator
Philippe Collon
Email address of project director or principal investigator
PCOLLON@ND.EDU
2 sp. | 4 appl.
Hours per week
1 credit / 3-6 hours (+1)
1 credit / 3-6 hours2 credits / 6-12 hours
Project categories
Physics & Astronomy