Dr. Farida Selim
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Bowling Green State University, Ohio
Center for Pure and Applied PhotoSciences, Bowling Green State University, Ohio

Abstract

Development of advanced materials for next generation of nuclear energy requires full understanding of radiation induced defect formation and propagation in nuclear materials. Positron Annihilation Spectroscopy (PAS), which is based on antimatter physics provides the most sensitive method for probing and characterization of atomic scale defects in matter.

In this talk, I will explain the principles of positron annihilation spectroscopy, demonstrates why it provides a unique tool for studying defects in materials and discuss how we plan to enhance its capabilities to study the kinetics of radiation induced defect formation and reveal the underlying damage mechanisms at a very fundamental level.

Development of fast efficient detectors for γ-rays is another area of our research fostering interactions between material and nuclear sciences. In the second part of the talk, I will present new instrumentation that we have recently developed to enhance the study of scintillation detectors and then demonstrate a new fast scintillation detector with much better energy and timing resolution than standard ones such BaF₂  and NaI (Tl) detectors.

Biography

Farida Selim has obtained her PhD in Physics in a joint program between Harvard and Alexandria University, Egypt.  She carried out most of her PhD research at Lawrence Livermore National  Laboratory to develop MeV positron beam for channeling and in-flight annihilation experiments. Then  she worked as a postdoctoral Research Associate at Idaho Accelerator Center, then Research Assistant Professor at Washington State University. She is currently an Associate Professor of Physics at Bowling Green State University.  She published more than 100 peer review journal articles and three patents. She is known for inventing a new positron annihilation spectroscopy technique (Gamma Induced Positron Spectroscopy), which has been adopted and used for developing new positron facilities in Dresden, Germany, Japan and India and extended positron applications to new areas in Materials Science. In addition to her research on positron annihilation and defect studies, she has active research programs on electronic and photonic materials with focus on growth and characterization of semiconductors and wide band gap oxides, as well as on developing new instrumentation for defect and luminescence studies.

She currently serves as an advisor on  three  International Committees,  the International advisory Committee of Positron and Positronium Chemistry (PPC), the International Advisory Board on Positron Studies of Defects (PSD) and the Advisory Committee of the International Conference on Positron Annihilation (ICPA)  and she has hosted and chaired  ICPA-18 last August in Orlando, Florida.

***This seminar will be streamed live on our NCStateNuclear YouTube channel***