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Andrew Kortyna, assistant professor of physics, has been awarded a $125,800 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to continue his research program focusing on atomic collisions.
This is now the second award that Kortyna has received from the NSF for this project. In 2003, he received a $141,920 grant.
Through the EXCEL Scholars program, Kortyna and his student research assistants are studying atomic collisions at low energies with the goal of better understanding molecular interactions.
EXCEL students conduct research with faculty while earning a stipend. The program has helped to make Lafayette a national leader in undergraduate research. Many of the more than 160 students who participate each year share their work through articles in academic journals and/or conference presentations.
“Ultimately, we are studying molecular dynamics, which is to say, we are asking questions like, ‘How do atoms interact with each other, how do atoms form into molecules, and how do molecules fall apart?’” Kortyna says.
To address those questions, Kortyna observes collisions between atoms that have been carefully prepared into specific and well-defined initial states. The results of these observations yield information about the inter-atomic forces that underlie all chemical processes.
The success of the project relies on advances made over the past few decades in the field of laser spectroscopy. Kortyna is among a small international group of collision scientists who are using laser-spectroscopy techniques to the study the details of molecular dynamics.
In Kortyna’s laboratory in the Hugel Science Center, he is using lasers to control collision energies of atoms in order to observe collision at very low temperatures. He hopes to achieve temperatures below 1 degree Kelvin (about -458 degrees Fahrenheit).
Besides its contribution to science, this project is important for developing Lafayette’s facilities in experimental physics. The atomic and molecular physics laboratory at Lafayette is a state-of-the-art facility, but the continued support from the NSF will enhance the college’s ability to conduct cutting edge research and make available more sophisticated instrumentation for use on campus.
Several future physicists have been involved with the project as research assistants. These include Timothy Bragdon ’04, who graduated witha B.S. in physics; Jonathan Farrar ’07 (Alexandria, Va.), who is pursuing a B.S. in physics and an A.B. in mathematics;Victor Fiore ’08 (Clarks Summit, Pa.), who is pursuing B.S. degrees in physics and chemistry; and Nicholas Masluk ’06, who graduated witha B.S. in physics.
Bragdon, who is now pursuing a Ph.D. in atomic and molecular physics at the University of Connecticut, and Masluk, who is planning to start work in a quantum computing research group at Yale University this summer, were co-authors with Kortyna of an article that appeared in Physical Review A. Masluk also presented research results with Farrar at the 37th Annual meeting of the American Physical Society’s Division of Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics in Knoxville, Tenn.
Kortyna has been working in the field of cold molecular collisions for more than a decade. Prior to coming to Lafayette in 2001, he taught and conducted research while holding a National Science Foundation fellowship at Colby College. Prior to that, he was a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech and did research at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he still collaborates with NASA scientists. He has also conducted research at Universität Kaiserslautern in Germany.
Kortyna’s previous grants include awards from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the German Academic Exchange Service, and the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society. He regularly shares his research through articles published in scientific journals and conference presentations. Kortyna holds a Ph.D. in physics from Wesleyan University and a B.S. in physics from Juniata College.