Amgen Scholars: Announcements of Opportunity

Below are Announcements of Opportunity posted by Caltech faculty for the Amgen Scholars program.

Announcements of Opportunity are posted as they are received. Please check back regularly for new AO submissions! Remember: This is just one way that you can go about identifying a suitable project and/or mentor. For additional tips on identifying a mentor click here.

Please remember:

Students pursuing Amgen must be U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents, or students with DACA status.
Students pursuing Amgen must complete the 10-week program from June 21 - August 25, 2023. Students must commit to these dates. No exceptions will be made.
Accepted students must live in provided Caltech housing.

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Project:

Developing basic readout and analysis tools for Quantum Capacitance Detectors

Disciplines:

Physics, Applied Physics

Mentor:

Sunil Golwala, Professor, (PMA), golwala@caltech.edu

AO Contact:

Karthik Ramanathan, karthikr@caltech.edu

Background:

Quantum Capacitance Detectors are 'qubits' that have been repurposed as sensors for particle physics applications. A basic primer on QCDs can be found in reference [1] and an example of them being used as a photon detector can be found in [2]. However, our needs (developing dark matter detectors) require sensitivity to energy deposits in the substrate they are mounted on. Our group is fabricating these new 'phonon-mediated' detectors with a plan of testing them soon.

Description:

We have a few small projects, depending on taste and interest:
1) Develop a readout chain with some Python code, linking together hardware. Write some scripts to operate the hardware, take data, preprocess, and store for analysis. Also help perform some basic analysis tasks on the initial data.
2) Model the geometry of the experiment and perform a Monte Carlo (Geant4) simulation to determine phonon/quasiparticle properties and extract detector response.

References:

[1] https://arxiv.org/abs/0902.4194
[2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-017-0294-y

Student Requirements:

- Python and/or C++
- Geant4
- Basic lab skills

Programs:

This AO can be done under the following programs:

		Program	Available To
		Amgen Scholars	Non-Caltech students only
		SURF	both Caltech and non-Caltech students

Click on a program name for program info and application requirements.

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