Welcome! I am a student at Davidson College, class of 2000, and am majoring in Physics.  These pages contain some of the independent research I have been involved in over the past year.

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Applets I have been working on.

Recent experimental work.

Links to other Physics-related sites.

These are pictures of thermal stress patterns in some of the Er-doped sol-gel silicate glasses on which I am currently conducting research.  The glass is placed between crossed polarizers.  Thermal stress changes the index of refraction of the material and thus changes the polarization of incident light.  Normally, no light is transmitted through crossed polarizers.  Because the polarization changes as light passes through the samples between the polarizers, the only light that passes through both polarizers is light that strikes the areas of high thermal stress.