Kyle Sikkema - Getting The Lay of The Land

**Warning - This is way too long of a blog post, but it’s good, so viewer discretion is advised?**

I was never one to deal with homesickness well or cope with a sizeable distance separating me from my family. Before this week, the furthest I had been away from home was at a summer camp in Pennsylvania, a few summers ago, for two weeks. Now, I’m more than 600 miles removed from the comforts of home, for three times as long. But this time, things are different. Through the chaotic weekend of moving into my apartment and the first few days at the lab, I’ve found the town of Ann Arbor to be quite pleasant. The streets are flooded with people around the clock, and the city still feels very much alive, considering the majority of the student body has left for summer. My homesickness has subsided quicker than expected, and I have grown more familiar with the area from my numerous adventures around town. Simply put, I love it here.

My first day in the lab went much better than I anticipated. I met Dr. Cundiff, my P.I., “bright and early” at nine in the morning, and he recognized me sitting outside of his office door as soon as he stepped out of the elevator. I was relieved to find out he was just as nice in person as he was in our previous skype calls. Dr. Cundiff welcomed me into his office as we began to talk logistics. I was immediately embraced by the research group, as I received an office key shortly later that morning. After receiving the key, I was introduced to Dr. Smallwood (he lets me call him Chris, which is pretty cool), the postdoc who I would be more closely working alongside for one of my projects. Chris gave me a tour of the Cundiff Group Laboratories that are located in the sub-basement (by the way, there’s a sub-sub-basement as well. Randall Laboratory is ridiculously big). He told me that many researchers prefer to attain lab spaces as far under the surface of the earth as possible, to minimize errors that could arise from conditions such as vibrations, which are more prevalent on higher floors of buildings, and sunlight.

On the tour, I met several other postdocs, undergraduate and graduate students who were part of Dr. Cundiff’s research group. The other two postdocs are Bacha (pronounced "Bah-chah") and Diogo (pronounced "Dee-oh-go"), who are both awesome and very knowledgeable about all the research conducted by the group. Lucky for me, I have a desk in the postdoc office to work on my projects, so I can pick their brains on certain things, and they are all very open to sharing their knowledge.

As we continued through the labs, Chris explained each project that is currently underway. The Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA), a sector of the University of Colorado’s science program, created a project called MONSTR. It is one of the longest running projects in the research group and takes up half of a lab space. Seriously, it’s massive. I have yet to figure out what MONSTR stands for, but that is the name of the project that originated at the University of Colorado (UC) and moved with Dr. Cundiff to the University of Michigan (UMich). Chris enlightened me on the mechanics and inner workings of the experiment setup, as well as explain the numerous applications of the data received from the JILA MONSTR tests.

Along the way, I met Hayden, an undergraduate who recently joined the research group, who works across from me on the same workbench in the laboratory. He is testing the capabilities of a new spectrometer that the group received by running several laser frequency tests to examine the limits of the spectrometer.

In the final lab room, I saw Jiahao (pronounced “Jah-how”) once again, a Ph.D. researcher from the Harbin Institute of Technology, who I actually met at the recreation center during my move-in weekend. I was applying for a gym membership and was asked about my research endeavors this summer, and I explained the basics of spectroscopy and the article on bomb detection that led me to discover Dr. Cundiff’s lab. Jiahao overheard our conversation and enthusiastically introduced himself to me and explained how he also works for Dr. Cundiff. He complimented me and said I had the best explanation of spectroscopy he had ever heard. It was a great coincidence that I ran into Jiahao, and it made me feel much better to know one friendly face before my first day.

After the end of our tour, Chris gave me a lecture about optical 2D spectroscopy and the key components that distinguish it from linear spectroscopy. One advantage that 2D has over linear is the recognition of whether resonances are coupled or uncoupled. A resonance is the so-called “sweet spot” frequency value that a light wave likes to travel, or resonate, at. These resonances show up as peaks on a spectrum graph. With linear spectroscopy, when more than one is existent in the spectrum, one cannot tell whether the two resonance peaks are from two atoms or one complex atom. But, with 2D spectroscopy (also called multidimensional spectroscopy), one can find the answer to this important question. This phenomenon is technically referred as coupling or uncoupling of resonances.

It is easy to spot coupling after doing a Fourier transform on the 1D frequency graph into a 2D frequency plot. This will allow one to conclude whether these resonances are coupled or uncoupled.

If two resonances are coupled, this means that light can be absorbed at “peak” frequency on the diagonal line of ω1 and emitted at ω2, and vice versa due to the peaks being from the same complex atom. This is why there are two extra “cross peaks” that project on the graph. The cross peaks connect the two peaks and allow for multiple absorption and emission paths for a light beam traveling through the atom and exciting electrons. If resonances are uncoupled, this cannot happen because the peaks are from two different atoms. Consequently, uncoupled resonances can only absorb at ω1 and emit back at ω1, and same applies for ω2. This is why there are no cross peaks on the uncoupled resonance frequency plot.

(The far left graph is a representation of uncoupled resonances, while the far right graph depicts coupling)

These benefits are real-world applicable and have the potential to benefit society in hopes of further pursuing material recognition to higher accuracy.

After the lecture, I looked at one of the projects I would be working on: the Multidimensional Coherent Spectroscopy Analog (MDCS Analog) or “Mechanical Monster,” as Chris likes to call it.

The MDCS Analog provides a visual representation of the behavior of coupling and uncoupling of resonances. It is purely mechanical, as there are no lasers involved in this project. The previous Python tutorials I completed were helpful in allowing me to understand the code. The analog is powered by an Arduino, which connects to a stepper motor. The stepper motor turns a camshaft in a lateral direction to disturb two pendula that are connected to gyroscopes, which are connected to sensors that track the angular velocities of each pendula. A Python code is used to attain the gyroscope sensor readings and convert other diagnostic information into an excel spreadsheet. Another Python code is then applied to the spreadsheet to attain four separate graphs: two of them being the 1D and 2D frequency plots.

The graphs provide the same visual representation of coupling in the simple behavior of the two pendula. This project is nearing completion in the coming months, so I am tasked with running the analog, tracking data, and finding a solution to an issue regarding the repeatability of the experiments being run on the 2D MDCS analog and some small inconsistencies regarding data collection. It’s quite interesting, and Chris has a vision of it being used nationwide in the classrooms to provide a visual explanation to 2D spectroscopy and coupling.

To conclude my first day, I received my official UMich identification information that allowed me to attain a university card and gain access to other facilities across campus such as a 3D printing lab on north campus (free to use) and access to both recreation centers (for necessary bucket-getting).

---

As the week progressed, I became more familiar with the lab members and the layout of Randall Lab. My relationships with the other researchers have already started to flourish and I am finding the transition into the lab smooth and successful. Everyone, especially Diogo, is astonished that I was born in 2000 and look at me in disbelief, considering most of the postdocs were almost in college by the time I was born.

I also met Grace, a first-year graduate student who is also new to the lab. She will be working with me on my second project. This second project involves a laser setup to observe the interactions between a continuous wave of light and a rubidium cell as the sample. Unfortunately, the primary literature is written in...French. Luckily, Grace is fluent in French and she is working up a translation for me and will help me interpret the data that will be collected from this simple laser-sample interaction experiment.

I have been assembling the experiment components and will provide an in-depth explanation of the functions for each piece in the setup once it is ready to run. This experiment should be enjoyable, and Chris says it is a great beginning project to get my first exposure with lasers.

In other news, I quickly learned that Wednesday is the official meeting day. The entire day consists of meetings, it’s that simple. In the morning, we have journal club with the research group, and Chris gave a presentation on another project being conducted by other researchers that were not affiliated with UMich. It was interesting to see conversations arise about how our group could use their lab setup to continue the other group’s studies.

After the group journal club, I went to a lunch meeting called PGSS (turns out, nobody knows what it actually stands for), which is a graduate student meeting where one student conducts a talk on their research findings within Randall Lab. This week’s talk was about how black holes affect the formation of stars, which sounded pretty awesome until the guy started speaking in the most technical-focused dialogue that I soon became completely lost and confused. Grace reassured me that it all blew over her head as well, so that made me feel much better in retrospect.

After PGSS, I went to an undergraduate meeting that was less technically focused and allowed the other undergraduates in the group to update Dr. Cundiff on their research and ask him questions. It was a smaller group and helped me better understand the other projects being conducted, as well as allow me to formulate my own explanation for my work.

A day full of meetings ended with quite a massive unanticipated water leak from an emergency shower in the sub-basement. That was quite fun for about 5 seconds before I booked it from the lab and headed home for the day.

^Cesar, a graduate student, took this video featuring a very unimpressed Bacha.

On Thursday, I went out to lunch with Diogo, Bacha, and a few graduate students. Matt, one of the graduate students, has been with the research group since his undergraduate years at UC. He then came to UMich to work on a unique project with Dr. Cundiff’s research group and he has since been working with them through his graduate career as well. Matt is considered a veteran and has been around Dr. Cundiff for the same amount of time as the postdocs, so he told me a few stories about their “glory days” and the humble beginnings to the group of guys who have been here for “too long.”

On Friday, the entire group went out to lunch to celebrate Bacha’s newly published research paper. Dr. Cundiff has a long-running tradition of paying for the entire group’s lunch when a paper is published. I sat with the postdocs and got to know them much better through casual conversation, and they are very interesting people who come from vastly different backgrounds. Bacha even told me he wrote the article I read regarding spectroscopy aiding in bomb detection.

This weekend, I will be completing lab safety modules in order to attain a lab key and continue to progress in my projects. I am excited to see what next week entails.

---

After one short week, I already feel like I can have a conversation with Chris about anything. He even asked me if I could look over one of his review articles that he is close to submitting for review. He is an excellent mentor, and it will be sad to see him leave, but I will make the most of the time that remains and learn as much as I can.

The Cundiff Research Group is seasoned. The postdocs all entered the group at the same time, and now they are leaving very soon. Chris is leaving the lab in 2 weeks. Diogo will be leaving in August, and Bacha will follow shortly after. I may have come into the group at just the right time because of this dilemma. Although they are all leaving soon, they are also not in any time crunches to submit papers or work tirelessly on projects. Instead, they are free and open to share their knowledge and teach me about all the aspects of spectroscopy research and other important skills regarding coding and physics theory. I have spent several hours simply absorbing all the information they have taught me through our lessons in the postdoc office, and I feel more knowledgeable than at the end of the school year. Things are much clearer now that I have the aid of these veteran postdocs mentoring me.

Fun fact: Dr. Cundiff has only been at UMich for three years. Before then, he was a member of the National Institution of Standards and Technology (NIST) and his research was conducted at UC. A few now-graduate students and the postdocs all started at UC and followed Dr. Cundiff to UMich. These 5-6 guys are the heart of the research group, and they make the culture of the lab so amazing. I am so fortunate to have ended up in Dr. Cundiff’s Lab. I’m also excited to be working on two projects. I am looking forward to these next five weeks. Because I am enjoying this experience so much, I might want to stay an extra week! But we shall cross that bridge when we get there.

Many more adventures and memories to come. All good - KRS.