Jul 2008 – Jul 2009 · 1 yr

• MSEL/Metallurgy division/Magnetic materials group
• Fabrication/characterization of magnetic nanostructure arrays for studies of magnetic switching field distributions. Included e-beam and photolithography, lift-off and ion milling techniques, metal deposition, and VSM.
• Extensive micromagnetic simulations using OOMMF developed at NIST. Included grain- and grain-boundary-dependent magnetic behavior, edge damage due to patterning, and pinning mechanisms.

May 2004 – Jun 2008 · 4 yrs 1 mo

• Construction of a non-magnetic STM module to be integrated into a pre-existing home-made UHV-STM system. The STM was used for contact giant magneto-resistance (GMR) measurements on free-standing multilayered Co/Cu nanocolumns grown by oblique-angle deposition (OAD).
• Rebuild of a high vacuum e-beam evaporation system; including disassembly, refurbishing/modification/machining, reassembly, etc.
• OOMMF (micro-magnetic modeling software provided by NIST) to perform simulations that helped explain the anisotropic magnetic behavior of the samples described in my main project.
• Other techniques: AFM, VSM, SEM, XPS, RHEED, and extensive use of XRD pole figures for texture analysis of nanostructures grown by OAD. .
• Software: MS Office, Maple, MATLAB, LabVIEW, C++, Origin, and some Linux-based applications.

Aug 2002 – May 2004 · 1 yr 9 mos

• Physics II Studio: Managed in-class activities, homework, grading, extensive exam reviews, and some lectures.
• Received the Walter Eppenstein Award (best graduate teaching assistant for an undergraduate course) for 2003.