The 2025 Segrè Students (from left to right): Ariyan Jazaeri, Auden Young, and Karla Eleonora Morales De Leon.
Over the summer, Segrè Interns Auden Young, Karla Eleonora Morales De Leon, and Ariyan Ryan Jazaeri made significant improvements to the 111 Lab. The bulk of their time was focused on repairing experiments that had broken during previous semesters, ensuring they are ready for student use in the fall. The atomic force microscope experiment was repaired, allowing students to explore atomic force microscopy and measure everything from the information density of a DVD to Boltzmann's constant using nanometer-scale resolution. A possible extension to this experiment is also being explored, in which students can perform electric force microscopy to view the electric fields of different samples.
The Interns repaired the gamma ray experiment, enabling students to view and analyze spectra of gamma ray emissions from various radioactive isotopes. As part of this effort, they developed new software that is both more student-friendly and compatible with Windows 11, and is now being used to help upgrade additional experiments in the 111 lab. They are also in the process of repairing the optical tweezer experiment, where students trap silica beads and biological samples using lasers for observation, as well as the magneto-optical trap, where students trap and laser-cool rubidium atoms.
Another major project has been upgrading the lab computers from Windows 7 to Windows 11. This process involves updating equipment for compatibility, rewriting software, and making other adjustments. The interns have been working on developing some new experiments, including one centered on nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond—an excellent introduction to quantum sensing—and a “modern Millikan” experiment.
In addition, the three helped out with the 111A lab over the summer, assisting students with questions and rewriting a lab on hardware control with Python to make it more accessible. Overall, these summer projects have revitalized existing experiments, introduced new opportunities for exploration, and prepared the lab for an engaging fall semester.
The Segrè Internship program is made possible through a generous gift from the late Douglas C. Giancoli.