Dr. Bob Beeken (rbeeken@uwsp.edu)
Solid State Ionics: Getting a Charge From Our Salts!
Most common salts, such as NaCl, possess crystal structures that stabilize their constituent ions at specific lattice sites. Some salts, like AgI, are characterized by a high mobility of one ionic species within a crystalline array defined by the other ionic species. These materials efficiently transport electric charge and have found applications in high energy density batteries, fuel cells, and other energy storage devices. Professor Beeken will describe ongoing research efforts with undergraduate students at UW-Stevens Point that have helped elucidate the mechanism of ionic transport in a number of copper and silver based solid electrolytes.
Dr. Brad Hinaus (bhinaus@uwsp.edu)
High Temperature Superconductors and Weak Links
High
temperature superconducting crystals exhibit the properties of zero
resistance and perfect diamagnetism within a specific range of
temperature, current, and magnetic field.
At the interface of two single crystals these properties are
greatly reduced, and the region is referred to as weak links.
The talk will include a general overview of superconducting
properties and applications, then focus on the electrical properties of
weak links when the magnetic field exceeds the range for perfect
diamagnetism.
Dr. Greg Taft (gtaft@uwsp.edu)
Femtosecond Laser Pulses
Lasers in research laboratories around the world routinely generate pulses of light with durations of less than 10 femtoseconds (that is 10^-14 s). These extremely short laser pulses have many interesting properties and uses. For example the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Ahmed Zewail for using femtosecond laser pulses to study ultrafast processes in chemical reactions. Recently, femtosecond laser pulses have been used in an attempt to produce nuclear fusion and also to generate coherent X-ray pulses. Dr. Taft will discuss the generation, measurement, and applications of femtosecond laser pulses.
Dr. Mick Veum (mveum@uwsp.edu)
Surface Tension Studies of Free-Standing Liquid-Crystal Films
One of the fundamental goals of surface science is to correlate macroscopic surface phenomena, e.g. adhesion, detergency, friction, and wetting, with the microscopic physical structure of the surface involved. Surface tension measurements provide important pieces to this rich and intriguing puzzle. This talk will focus upon some experimental studies of the relationship between surface tension and molecular structure of liquid-crystal compounds. These studies have furnished subtle information about the molecular ordering in liquid-crystal materials. These studies will be used as a vehicle for a broader discussion of liquid crystals, surface tension, and other related topics.
