Robert Schroll

Physics Department James Franck Institute University of Chicago

I am a third-year graduate student in the Department of Physics at the University of Chicago. I am currently supported by the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

You can reach me at rschroll@uchicago.edu. Sometimes, you can even find me in my office:

Research

Currently, I am interested in the field of non-linear dynamics. I am fascinated by the fact that simple systems governed by simple laws can give rise to complex behavior. We see these sorts of systems in everyday life, and I like doing "real world" physics.

Right now, I am working with Wendy Zhang. We are examining an experiment conducted by Jean-Pierre Delville and Alexis Casner, of the Université Bordeaux I (see Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 054503, and Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 144503). In this experiment, a laser beam is used to deform the interface between two fluids. As the power of the laser is changed, the deformation can change shapes rather dramatically. Some preliminary work is summarized in this presentation.

During my first year at Chicago, I worked on a Physics 335 project under Henry Frisch. This project investigated the feasibility of a new type of time-of-flight detector for use at collider detectors, like those at Fermilab and LHC. I produced a final report on this work for the class.

As an undergraduate at the University of Maryland, I did some work for Raj Roy. Raj's group works on non-linear optics, but I spent my time playing with computer-generated holograms. Apparently, this work has been of some use after I left.

Even before that, I worked for a summer with Ted Einstein, analyzing data taken by J.J. Métois of atomic steps on silicon surfaces. The riveting report will be posted if I ever find it. This work was supported by NSF-MRSEC Grant No. DMR-0080008 and the University of Maryland Summer Scholars Program.

Publications

EA Rogers, R Karla, RD Schroll, et al. "Generalized synchronization of spatiotermporal chaos in a liquid crystal spatial light modulator." Physical Review Letters 93, 084101 (2004).

RD Schroll, SD Cohen, TL Einstein, et al. "Si(111) step fluctuations in reflection electron microscopy at 1100 degrees C: anomalous step-step repulsion." Applied Surface Science 212: 219-223 (2003).

SD Cohen, RD Schroll, TL Einstein, et al. "Si(111) step fluctuations at high temperature: Anomalous step-step repulsion." Physical Review B 66, 115310 (2002).

Posters

RD Schroll, HJ Frisch, H Sanders, and T Fukun. "Psec TOF for Particle Identification at HEP Colliders." Nuclear Science Symposium, IEEE 2004 Conference, Rome, Oct 19 2004.

RD Schroll and TL Einstein. "Investigating Steps on Si (111): Calculating the Step Stiffness Parameter \beta\tilde." Thermo-2002, College Park, MD, April 19-20, 2002.

Files

Here are some pictures, presentations, and reports related to my current work.

• A presentation about my work over Summer 2004.
• A lightweight version of the above.
• Various images from my research.