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Christine Zgrabik is a third year student majoring in Physics and Spanish. Christine got her start in research through a NSF REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) the summer after her freshman year.
What advice would you give to current undergraduates who want to get involved in research?
Talk to everyone that you can! Networking has either helped me to find or actually get into every research position that I have had. Just this last summer on a trip to Chicago, I started talking with the person seated next to me about my majors and interests. It turned out that he was involved in a related field and he gave me his card to contact him in the future if I was looking for a position. I know that it’s sometimes a little hard or awkward at first, but I’ve found that in general, people do really want to help you because they remember when they were in the same position, so just don’t worry, and start talking. Soon enough, you’ll have a network built and just by making a few phone calls, you’ll probably find a friend of a friend that has an opportunity that fits you perfectly.
How did you become involved in research?
I have always been interested in how I can apply concepts from a classroom to a real life problem. For physics, this means my interests lie mostly in condensed matter. The summer after my freshman year, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do and after talking to some of my advisors, applied for an REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) program at Kent State. I spent 10 weeks working individually in a physics lab with parallel plate capacitors and granular matter. It was then that I realized how exciting research can be and that it was a path I wanted to continue to follow.
Can you explain how you actually conduct your research?
My research this past year was in Dr. Brillson’s electronic materials and nanostructures lab. My project was to figure out a process to make the best electrical contacts between zinc oxide, a semiconductor, and various metal contacts. After the samples had been cleaned, I measured the current and voltage characteristics through each metal contact. Then, they were annealed at temperatures starting at 350° C and continuing in increments of 100° C. After each anneal, I repeated the current-voltage measurements across each metal. I also hit the sample with electron beams of different energies and took a spectrum of the intensities of different wavelengths of light emitted from the sample. The measurements I took were compared to theory, from which we determined the sources of impurities in the zinc oxide affecting its electrical properties.
What have you enjoyed in your experience?
One of my favorite parts of working in Dr. Brillson’s lab was learning how to use all of the different equipment in the lab. All of the measurements that I made using an incident electron beam to measure the wavelength of emitted light had to be done in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) and at very low temperatures. UHV conditions minimize the dust and stray particles present on the sample and low temperatures sharpen the peaks on the graphed results producing more precise results. Learning how to insert and remove samples from the chamber without disrupting the pressure and how to setup the cooling system was very interesting. Besides the equipment, I liked working in the lab because it gave me a chance to apply the fundamental physics I had learned in class. Overall, the most enjoyable part is finally getting a result after all of the hours of hard work put in.
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