b'Electrochemical Anodization of NiobiumAnna M. White, Department of Physics, Astronomy, Geosciences, and Engineering Studies Faculty Sponsor: Dereth J. Drake, Department of Physics, Astronomy, Geosciences, and Engineering Studies Anodized niobium is commonly used for the formation of anodic layers on particle accelerator walls. The oxide layer itself can affect some of the characteristics of the surface of the walls, most notably, the color. By anodizing a metal at a certain voltage, we can manipulate the wavelengths of light reflected or absorbed by the surface, i.e. the color of the surface. This projects objective is to anodize a series of metal samples to determine how the anodization process affects the color of the niobium surface.Optical Emission Spectroscopy of Molecular NitrogenSavanna L. Burks, Department of Physics, Astronomy, Geosciences and Engineering Studies Faculty Sponsor: Dereth J. Drake, Department of Physics, Astronomy, Geosciences and Engineering StudiesFrom the auroras in the northern and southern hemispheres to the plasma cutter used by machinists, plasmas are an everyday part of life on Earth.One of the most abundant gasses in the Earths atmosphere is nitrogen, which is why many atmospheric pressure phenomena have a reddish glow to them.The goal of this project is to study the characteristics of the emission spectra of molecular nitrogen.To do this we will be using a spectrometer in conjunction with a CCD camera to measure the spectra from a plasma generated by a commercial plasma system.The spectra will then be analyzed to determine the structure of the various branches of the rotational and vibrational systems of the nitrogen spectra.Gas Kinetic Model for Argon in a Commercial Plasma SystemZachary Barton: Department of Chemistry and Department of Physics, Astronomy, Geosciences and Engineering Studies Faculty Sponsor: Dereth J. Drake, Department of Physics, Astronomy, Geosciences and Engineering StudiesGas kinetic models can tell us a lot about how a plasma system operates on the atomic and/or molecular level. Here, we are using a commercial Boltzmann solver to determine the electron energy distribution functions associated with an argon plasma produced by a commercial plasma system. From the EEDF we can gain insight about the electron temperature and electric field inside the device. 63'