Radioactivity Detection Using Radiation Portal Monitors
Barry Long - Class of 2006
This past summer I worked at Wright Patterson Air Force Base through a research oppurtunity offered by Wright State University in Ohio. The project that I worked on was to build and test a fiber optic high pressure sensor which utilizes diamond anvils to apply pressure to conducting polymers.
Once the pressure sensor was built, a polymer was placed in it and differing pressures were placed on the polymer. The sensor was hooked up to a spectrophotometer to record the absorption spectrum of the polymer at each pressure. It was theorized that pressure changes would cause a change in the peak wavelength. This was proven to be true, although to be completely sure that the results fit the theory the device needs to be calibrated which wasn't able to be completed during my available time.
The proof-of-concept results I did get were very exciting, as I was the first person to work with these materials in this way.