News

Physics Faculty Duo Creates Bilingual Children’s Books to Make STEM Fun

Professor of Physics Cindy Schwarz and Assistant Professor of Physics Juan Merlo-Ramirez are working on various initiatives, including writing children’s books in English and Spanish, to inspire Latinx children to learn about science.

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Luke’s paper has been published on January 25th 2022. There, we have demonstrated the existence of topological phases in a classical system consisting of an elastic string and metallic masses. The paper can be found here: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1402-4896/ac4ed2

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July 2023

This summer 2023, Madeleine Carhart and Katie Canavan developed a process to fabricate micro- and nano-structures using electron beam lithography (EBL) under Pro.f Merlo’s advising. The maximum resolution achieved is ~200 nm. Below, there is a colored SEM picture of the Vassar College seal fabricated using EBL. The red regions represent Ag while the gray represents ITO. The scale bar represents 10 microns or roughly the size of a red blood cell.

Canavan, Carhart, Merlo. 2023

It is important to mention that we used the electron scanning microscope (SEM) at the Earth Science and Geography department at Vassar. This SEM is intended only for imaging, but we managed it to work as an EBL machine.

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September 2023

Our paper on anisotropic generation of surface plasmons in Au crystals has been published in the IEEE Photonics Journal. The paper can be found here: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10234094

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January 2024

Our paper on three-dimensional mapping of magnetic field components has been accepted in the IOP Journal of Optics. The paper can be found here: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2040-8986/ad21e0

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May 2024

Our paper on the study of the guided modes in a single crystal of MoS2 has been accepted in the Revista Mexicana de Física.

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June 2024

Our paper on the in-plane radiation generated by large particles has been published in the IOP Journal of Optics. The paper can be found here: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2040-8986/ad5c7d

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August 2024

Our research lab has been featured in Vassar College’s stories. https://www.vassar.edu/news/ursi-provides-deep-dive-nanotech-and-ai

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September 2024

We got the copies of pictures taken for the Vassar Stories. Here are some of them.

Left: Prof. Merlo and Joanna Wahl show the chip containing the Vassar seal written on a sample of red blood cells. Right: Atomic force microscopy image of the micro-Vassar seal.
Undergraduate Research Summer Institute (URSI), Vassar College, July 18, 2024 Photo credit: Buck Lewis/Vassar College. AFM image: Merlo Lab.
Left to right: Joanna Wahl ’27, Prof. Juan M. Merlo, James Zuckerman ’26 at the SEM room in Ely Hall at Vassar College.
Undergraduate Research Summer Institute (URSI), Vassar College, July 18, 2024 Photo credit: Buck Lewis/Vassar College

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November 2024

Our paper on the longitudinal topological insulator is now available in Physica Scripta. The paper can be found here: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1402-4896/ad87bd