Research Interests

• LIGO
• The LIGO experiment, one of the largest projects ever undertaken by the US National Science Foundation, recently detected gravitational waves from the inspiral of two 30 stellar mass black holes. These waves were predicted 100 years ago by Einstein's general theory of relativity but had never before been observed directly. The LIGO observatory consists of three separate laser interferometers, one in Washington State, one in Louisiana, and a third (planned) in India. These are Michelson interferometers, with Fabry-Perot cavities in the arms to increase the storage time of light in the interferometer. The arms are 4 km in length, allowing precise measurement of the motion of test masses which make up the end mirrors of the interferometers.

The UF LIGO group is carrying out analysis of the data from the interferometers, studying advanced configurations for the LIGO detector, and built the input optics for both initial and advanced LIGO.


• Axions
• With Pierre Sikivie and Neil Sullivan, I'm involved in a full-scale dark-matter axion search at the University of Washington called the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX). ADMX searches for axions in out galactic halo through their conversion to photons in a resonant cavity permeated by a strong magnetic field. The Florida group contributes to the high-resolution spectral analysis package of this experiment, oversaw the acquisition of a dilution refrigerator for the Gen 2 ADMX upgrade, and is working on cavity design for higher-frequency searches.

Another axion search, carried out in collaboration with Guido Mueller , is the ALPS (Any Light Particle) experiment at DESY. This is a "light-shining-through-walls" experiment in which axions are produced in one resonant cavity carrying high circulating power laser light and inside a strong dipole magnet, flow through a wall (where photons are blocked) and reconvert into photons in a second cavity/magnet arrangement.


• Infrared Spectroscopy
• My group studies materials by optical reflectance or transmittance at wavelengths from the far infrared through the near ultraviolet. Among the topics studied are high-temperature superconductors, electroactive (conducting) polymers, low-dimensional organic crystals, fullerenes, and a number of other systems.  We have also contributed to transport and other studies, and have worked on techniques and applications.
• I am also a member of MET beamline at NSLS II, where we plan to use synchrotron radiation to carry out pump-probe and other measurements in the far infrared, in collaboration with Larry Carr at the NSLS.

 

David Tanner  /   Last modified: 5 August 16.