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The importance of lasing cannot be overstated – from improving medicine through surgery uses and industry through laser cutting and micro-wielding (just to name a few), to the development of laser cooling to isolate the first Bose-Einstein condensate in 1995. Not only do the technological benefits encourage research but, as

The importance of lasing cannot be overstated – from improving medicine through surgery uses and industry through laser cutting and micro-wielding (just to name a few), to the development of laser cooling to isolate the first Bose-Einstein condensate in 1995. Not only do the technological benefits encourage research but, as could probably be deduced, lasers are expensive devices. From Ruby crystals to Rubidium gasses, the materials required to construct lasers can be rare and highly specialized. Since the advancement of computer technology, computational physics has proved exceedingly useful. As a combination of both theoretical and experimental physcis, computational physics proves itself invaluable for allowing the testing of various theories and running of experiments in a time efficient and far less expensive way. For the purpose of this paper, having a clear understanding of the computational lasing system allows for simulations that are incredibly expensive or might not even be possible yet, to be conducted and the groundwork to be laid for future theory, experiment, or product.
The response of a molecular sheet with varying densities of simple, two-level system without lasing due to an ultra-short, wideband pulse centered at 2 eV is first investigated. The Fabry-Pérot modes rising from interference are observed, as well as the expected redshift in the transmission and reflection frequencies in the thin molecular sheet regime. Cautions regarding numerical instability and implementation of the Fast Fourier Transform are discussed. Upon activating the lasing levels of the molecules (creating a four-level system), the transmission and refection responses are measured for four combinations of molecular density and molecular sheet thickness. Lasing threshold and saturation phenomenon are observed and a clear lasing region is seen in the Power input/output analysis.
Population inversion is driving force that triggers lasing through stimulated emission. To investigate this, the populations of each of the four molecular energies levels are tracked for the same combinations of parameters in the previous tests. The population inversions and the threshold/saturation phenomena do not correspond to within reasonable limits. Inspection of the population data reveals a highly varied distribution within the molecular, suggesting that the system does not reach steady-state, and therefore and alternate method of analysis will need to be developed.
Having experimented with the simulations above, both the development of appropriate population analysis framework and the investigation of higher order dimensions (2-D and 3-D) will be pursed.
ContributorsBrewer, Andre (Author) / Sukharev, Maxim (Thesis director) / Treacy, Michael (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
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Leonard Hayflick studied the processes by which cells age during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in the United States. In 1961 at the Wistar Institute in the US, Hayflick researched a phenomenon later called the Hayflick Limit, or the claim that normal human cells can only divide forty to sixty

Leonard Hayflick studied the processes by which cells age during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in the United States. In 1961 at the Wistar Institute in the US, Hayflick researched a phenomenon later called the Hayflick Limit, or the claim that normal human cells can only divide forty to sixty times before they cannot divide any further. Researchers later found that the cause of the Hayflick Limit is the shortening of telomeres, or portions of DNA at the ends of chromosomes that slowly degrade as cells replicate. Hayflick used his research on normal embryonic cells to develop a vaccine for polio, and from HayflickÕs published directions, scientists developed vaccines for rubella, rabies, adenovirus, measles, chickenpox and shingles.

Created2014-07-20
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Although best known for his work with the fruit fly, for which he earned a Nobel Prize and the title "The Father of Genetics," Thomas Hunt Morgan's contributions to biology reach far beyond genetics. His research explored questions in embryology, regeneration, evolution, and heredity, using a variety of approaches.

Created2007-09-25
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Created1935