Physics

Browse by

The Physics Department of the University of Otago was the first Physics Department in New Zealand. The Chair in Natural Philosophy was established when the University opened in July 1871. Ever since, the Department has embraced innovative teaching methods, promoted a vigorous research ethos, and been committed both to Physics as a discipline and to its applications.

Our research ranges from the fundamental quantum processes that underlie our very existence, through the largest explosions in the solar system, Antarctic ice, supercomputers and robotics, to the development of the next generation of energy efficient homes.

Recent Deposits

A Stand-Alone 'Self-Locking' Laser

Cowdell, Carolyn (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

This dissertation presents a stand-alone ’self-locking’ laser. The aim of the project was to develop a prototype of a ’self -locking’ laser that requires no user input, other than to turn the laser on. The prototype was ...
Coherent Frequency Conversion from Microwave to Optical Fields in an Erbium Doped Y2SiO5 Crystal: Towards the Single Photon Regime

Fernandez Gonzalvo, Xavier (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017)

In the context of quantum information technologies superconducting qubits (SQs) are very attractive devices for the manipulation of quantum states, and present themselves as one of our best candidates to build a quantum ...
Quantum Analogues of Two-Dimensional Classical Turbulence

Reeves, Matthew (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017)

Turbulence, the irregular motion of fluids, is a challenging problem in physics. Yet some properties of turbulence appear to be universal, independent of the underlying host fluid supporting the motion. Recent studies have ...
An Investigation of Interference Lithography Applications using Evanescent Fields

Bourke, Levi Earl (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017)

Since the dawn of large scale integrated circuitry photolithography has been the primary means of pattern production. Over the following 60 years the size of these patterns has shrunk massively, along with the consequent ...
An Exergy Analysis of the New Zealand Energy System

Tromop van Dalen, Caitlin J R (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

Exergy analysis has been shown to be a valuable method of assessing energy use on a national scale. Exergy analysis measures the work potential of mass and energy flows, and therefore more accurately identifies areas with ...
Development of a Hyperspectral sensor system for model-based remote water constituent inference

West, Matthew Thomas (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

This project undertook a model-based inversion of spectral data for remote sensing of water constituents, from satellite based hyperspectral sensors. As the atmosphere effects dominate the observed spectrum, a parameterised ...
Tight-binding methods for overdamped Brownian motion and their application to molecular motors

Nguyen, Thi Thanh Phuong (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017)

Biomolecular motors are molecules that transform energy to perform physiological functions. The operation of molecular motors has a number of interesting physical properties that have attracted a great deal of investigation. ...
Simulation of the Effect of Ice Shelf Melt around Antarctica in an Earth System Model

Pauling, Andrew (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

The observed increase in Antarctic sea ice area over time is not reproduced by Earth System Models. One proposed reason for this discrepancy is that these models do not realistically represent ice shelves and the associated ...
Higher-Order GPS Noise Models, with Applications to Position Inference and Vehicle Navigation

Soundy, Andrew Walden Ross (Thesis, Master of Science, 2017)

This thesis presents an experimental and theoretical investigation of GPS errors. Data from stationary GPS units were gathered from several locations and an analysis of the noise present was undertaken. Several noise models ...
Energy dependent scattering of ultracold atoms about a Feshbach resonance

Horvath, Milena Simone Julia (Thesis, Master of Science, 2016)

In this thesis we explore ultracold atomic collisions in the vicinity of a magnetic Feshbach resonance located at 9.1 G, between 87Rb atoms in the |F = 2, mF = 1> and the |F =1, mF = 1> hyperfine states. We experimentally ...
Near-deterministic preparation of single atoms and Raman sideband cooling

Fung, Yin Hsien (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2016)

In this thesis, we present our methods and results towards the development of deterministic preparation of single neutral atoms with a known quantum state in a single trap potential. Firstly, we experimentally study the ...
Transport of Circularly Polarized Light

Macdonald, Callum Murray (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2016)

The behaviour of circularly polarized light propagating within complex scattering media is investigated. The striking "memory effect" of this form of polarization has previously displayed a significant dependence on various ...
Controlling Photon Echoes with the Light Shift

McDonald, Hamish Callum (Thesis, Master of Science, 2016)

Recent progress with rare-earth-ion ensemble quantum memories has resulted in a family of echo-memory protocols which use sequences of pulsed light fields to recall a pulse stored in the ensemble earlier. The simplest of ...
Drivers and Dynamics of the Ross Sea

Jendersie, Stefan (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2016)

The seasonal control mechanisms of the circulation in the Ross Sea are studied here by utilising a climatological three-dimensional numerical model based on the Regional Ocean Model System (ROMS). Of interest are the ...
Internal gravity waves in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica

Albrecht, Nicole (Thesis, Master of Science, 2006)

Internal waves have an impact on many oceanic processes such as heat transport and mixing and have been studied intensively in mid and low latitudes. Their presence in polar regions has received less attention due to ...
Investigation of first and second order correlation functions of ultra-cold atomic gases

Toth, Emese (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2016)

In the first part of the thesis we develop a theoretical description of the correlations between ultra-cold bosons after free expansion from confinement in an optical lattice. We describe the single particle evolution of ...
Markov Chain Monte Carlo Based Analysis of Bearing Vibrations

Lawrence, Hilary Jane (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2016)

The aim of the work in this thesis is to use bearing vibration data to infer the condition of bearings, in particular to detect the presence or absence of damage, and identify the location and cause of damage to parts of ...
Sequential Inference for Dynamical Systems

Morrison, Malcolm Erik King (Thesis, Master of Science, 2016)

Sequential inference methods have played a crucial role in many of the technological marvels that we use today, from GPS and navigation systems to machine learning. Most current methods, such as the unscented Kalman filter ...
Power Efficient, Telemetry-Enabled Position Sensor for Animal Tracking

Panckhurst, Bradley (Thesis, Master of Science, 2016)

This thesis describes the design, development and characterisation of an animal position sensor system. It focuses on the implementation of a telemetry system capable of retrieving position data wirelessly. The position ...
C-Field Theory of Dynamics in One Dimensional Bose Gases: The Kibble-Zurek Mechanism and Bright Soliton Arrest

McDonald, Rob (Thesis, Master of Science, 2015)

A grand canonical C-field theory has been previously developed for modelling finite temperature Bose gases, the stochastic projected Gross-Pitaesvkii equation (SPGPE) [1]. Previous investigations have shown quantitative ...