Former Undergraduate Research Assistant, Aerospace Engineering Department
Pierce joined the group in 2018 and first worked on the fabrication of a barium atomic vapor filter for LIDAR applications. As part of this effort, Pierce designed, fabricated, and tested a unique fusing apparatus for assembling sapphire vapor cells containing vacuum-sealed elemental barium. The cells are sealed by non-contact heating with an induction heater and proprietary glass frit binder. In his later involvement with the lab, Pierce investigated laser-generated breakdown at high temperatures.