Stephen Revesz

Research

Multi-dimensional Coherent Spectroscopy & Quantum Optics

Above is the collinear spectrometer following this architecture that I will be using to probe the optical properties of 2D materials. The 2D materials I will focus on are heterostructure transition-metal dichalcogenides WSe$$₂, WS$$₂, and possibly graphene. Quasi-particles called excitons form from an electron-hole pair located within a 2D monolayer or between adjacent bilayer sheets. The coherence times for excitons, including their ionized variety, are very short lived (~ps) and I want to look into how the exciton coherence time is affected by different arrangements of sandwiched heterostructures, strain induced points, or "magic angle" rotated sheets.

Blazar Optical Variability

Blazar are a sub-class of active galactic nuclei that exhibit fluctuating luminosity throughout the spectrum of light. Our group focused on the optical variability and kept an eye on several blazar through our observatory and through the SARA consortium. Blazar 2200+420 was the object I particularly focused on during my undergraduate research. It has a rather high duty cycle of about ~77, meaning variability is probabble about 77% of the time. The responsibilities I had were 90% observational and 10% theoretical. The figure above is of blazar 0716+071 showcasing microvariability observed simultaneously from two separate observatories.

Exoplanet Transit Survey

After verifying the sensitivity of our 0.6-m class telescope of being capable of picking up the micro-variability of distant quasar from light polluted Miami, I made several attempts at observing an exoplanet transit as well. The findings were unsatisfactory as the flux dip due to the transit are much smaller than the noise produced by the light pollution in the surrounding campus and nearby city lights. The figure above shows one of my observations of GJ3470 and a comparison star. The dashed red lines denote the transit start and end times.

About

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Earned a B.Sc. in physics wth a minor in astronomy from Florida International University. I worked closely with Dr. James Webb on observing and modelling blazar optical variability. He also taught me how to operate our 0.6-m class telescope at the Stocker AstroScience Center observatory, and the telescopes available through the SARA Consortium in Arizona, Chile, and the Canary Islands. (The telescope in the selfie is the GTC btw!)

Currently finishing up the first year of my Ph.D.at FIU with Dr. Hebin Li as my advisor. The general synopsis for my thesis will be on characterizing the optical properties of 2D materials through multi-dimensional coherent spectroscopy.

Besides research I would use the observatory for outreach and even managed to catalog all the Messier objects with other students! You can even check out some of my astrophotography on my secondary Instagram.

Contact

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