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Michael Griffo
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WHO AM I?
I received a Bachelors in Physics from UC Berkeley in 2003. I am now in graduate school at UC Santa Cruz. Here at UCSC I have recently been given the responsibility of Head TA for the Physics Department and I am also busy teaching and working towards my PhD in Sue Carter's lab doing condensed matter physics. My other interests include various sports such as: skiing, mountaineering, and surfing. I also have been known to play esoteric music and fix my old Volvo for better or worse. |
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CURRENT RESEARCH:
In Sue Carter's Lab I am currently working on enhanced efficiencies of plastic photovoltaics. Using various materials (TiO2, CdSe, HgCdTe) with optically active semi conducting polymers (P3HT), I am interested in characterizing enhanced conversion efficiencies.
PAST RESEARCH 2005-2006:
In Sue Carter's Lab and in conjunction with IBM Almaden I focused on nano-particle organic memory structures. Working with a senior grad student, Daniel Simon, the research is focused on understanding I-V hysteresis observed in nano-particle organic structures. Characterization techniques involved basic current/voltage sweeps, capacitance measurements, and temperature dependant measurements. An article about this work was published in Applied Physics Letters (APL) in August 2006.
PAST RESEARCH 2002-2003:
At UCB I did extensive work in a condensed matter lab working with
AFMs, STMs, UHV systems, and cryogenics. Working closely with Shaul
Aloni for about two years, I built a UHV system that is used for a new
Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) by RHK. The STM operates between
15K and 100K and it is easier to use than most 4K STMs. The cooling
time is shorter and the rate of helium consumption is slower. In the
same UHV system there is a LEED and Auger surface analysis system, an
ion gun, and Mb or Ta evaporators. This enabled us to prepare samples
without removing them from UHV and characterize them with more than
just STM. I looked at boron nitride and carbon nanotubes. Chiral angle,
tube diameter, and substrate coupling affect the local density of
electronic states in nanotubes. By looking at tube structure and its
coupling with the substrate, I further characterized nanotube
transport. One direct application of my work is nanocomputing. Other
prospective research projects include studying defects in nanotubes and
the resulting quantum dots, 1 dimensional conductors, and mechanical
organic molecules. Click Here to see my
defunct webpage from Berkeley including a picture of me next to the STM
More mundane experiences in the lab include organizing and implementing
a move of all of the labs, primarily the STM labs, from Le Conte to the
Birge Building. After finishing my undergrad requirements I continued
working in Alex Zettl's lab for another year.
PAST RESEARCH 2001-2002:
I worked on a running fixed target experiment at SLAC, E158, summer of
2000 and 2001. E158 looks at the parity violation of the Zo Boson
through a measurement of the weak mixing angle off of the Zo resonance
at low Q^2. Summer 2000 I worked with Mike Woods on a synchrotron light
monitor (SLM) that looks at beam energy asymmetries by analyzing
energies of beam pulses with different helicities. During the following
school year I followed up on a couple of calculations that would help
us better understand the output of the SLM. The following is a link to
a paper I have written in this area:
Design for Electron Beam Energy Monitors
Summer 2001 I worked for Ted Fieguth on spin transport for E158. I
updated a defunct code, Murtle, that calculates the Spin evolution of
an electron passing through the beam elements before reaching the
target in end station A. I also added new functions to Murtle so that
it will include a proper spin precession due to a 7 card, which changes
the phase space vector.
Office Location:
308 Natural Sciences II
Phone:
Office: (831) 459-4588
Lab: . .(831) 459-3657
Email:
mgriffo@physics.ucsc.edu*
mike.griffo@gmail*
Mailing Address:
Michael Griffo
UC Santa Cruz Dept. of Physics
211 Interdisciplinary Sciences Building
1156 High Street Santa Cruz, CA 95064