Experimental Physics
Students conducting research with our experimental physics faculty work in one of several laboratories hosted within the department. Our facilities host several million dollars' worth of equipment—including atomic force microscopes, plasma reactors, lasers, and optical benches—which trains students to work on experimental setups widely used in industry and post-graduate research. The research interests of our experimental physics faculty span a wide range of physics sub-fields, including optics, biophysics, plasma physics, and solid-state physics.
Kurt Vandervoort
Professor Emeritus
Professor Vandervoort has been involved in several aspects of solid state research. He and student coworkers have studied the magnetic properties of high temperature superconductors. These materials have been developed in the last thirty years and exhibit zero resistance to current flow at temperatures higher than the boiling point of nitrogen. More recently, he has pursued investigations in the field of nanotechnology. He uses scanning probe microscopes, instruments with atomic resolution that work by rastering a small probe across the surface of a sample. His most recent research involving students uses one of these instruments, a scanning tunneling microscope, to produce extremely thin nanowires, that exhibit quantized conductance. Instrumentation in Dr. Vandervoort's lab includes several commercial instruments, namely a Quesant atomic force microscope used mainly for other research (see Optics and Biophysics page), as well as a home-built scanning tunneling microscope and a home-built superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer.
Robert M. Nelson, Mark D. Boryta, Bruce W. Hapke, Kenneth S. Manatt, Yuriy Shkuratov, V. Psarev, Kurt Vandervoort, Desire Kroner, Adaze Nebedum, Christina L. Vides, John Quiñones. "Laboratory simulations of planetary surfaces: Understanding regolith physical properties from remote photopolarimetric observations." Icarus 302, 483-498 (2018)
K. Vandervoort and G. Brelles-Mariño, Cal Poly Pomona NUE Project: Implementing Microscale and Nanoscale Investigations Throughout the Undergraduate Curriculum. (2013) J. Nano Educ. 5, 51-60
K. G. Vandervoort, T. T. Nguyen, M. A. Demine, and W. K. Kwok, Measurements of the Meissner fraction as a function of oxygen ordering for oxygen deficient YBa2Cu3O7-d single crystals. (2006) Superconductor Science and Technology 19, 980
B. B. Lewis, K. G. Vandervoort, and R. D. Foster, Measurements of Quantized Conductance in Gallium as a Function of Temperature. (1999) Solid State Communications 109, 525