Gravitational waves from coalescing neutron stars encode information about nuclear matter at extreme densities, inaccessible by laboratory experiments. The late inspiral is influenced by the presence of tides, which depend on the neutron star equation of state. Neutron star mergers are expected to often produce rapidly rotating remnant neutron stars that emit gravitational waves. These will provide clues to the extremely hot post-merger environment. This signature of nuclear matter in gravitational waves contains most information in the 2–4 kHz frequency band, which is outside of the most sensitive band of current detectors. We present the design concept and science case for a Neutron Star Extreme Matter Observatory (NEMO): a gravitational-wave interferometer optimised to study nuclear physics with merging neutron stars. The concept uses high-circulating laser power, quantum squeezing, and a detector topology specifically designed to achieve the high-frequency sensitivity necessary to probe nuclear matter using gravitational waves. Above 1 kHz, the proposed strain sensitivity is comparable to full third-generation detectors at a fraction of the cost. Such sensitivity changes expected event rates for detection of post-merger remnants from approximately one per few decades with two A+ detectors to a few per year and potentially allow for the first gravitational-wave observations of supernovae, isolated neutron stars, and other exotica.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, August 4 – August 8, 2013.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, August 7–August 11, 2011.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2007 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA, August 5 – August 9, 2007

In the present work we study the effect of vertical alignment in the quantum dot array formed by successive deposition of several rows of InAlAs and InGaAs quantum dots separated by thin AIGaAs spacer layers. Transmission electron microscopy and photoluminescence studies revealed that the InAlAs QDs characterized by high areal density force InGaAs to be transformed into the denser array as compared to the case of spontaneous transformation. Using denser array of composite quantum dots in the active region of a diode laser leads to the increase in modal gain, decrease in internal loss, and decrease in the threshold current density for short cavity diodes. Room temperature continuous wave output power as high as 3.3 W at 0.87 µm is achieved.

The equilibrium sorption, inverse gas chromatography (dynamic sorption), optic microscopy, X-ray diffraction and visible light scattering methods were used to investigate the structure of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) blended with poly(vinylacetate) and poly(siloxanes) as matrices of polymer solid electrolytes. It was shown that the melting point (Tm) and the degree of crystallinity in such PEO-blends were lower than in pure PEO. The Gibbs energy of mixing and the compatibility parameter (X12) were obtained for PEO-blends. In the vicinity of Tm all the systems were thermodynamically compatible, however at the ambient temperature they were microgeterogenous and compatible only in the narrow range of PEO-modificator contents. This must be taken into consideration while creating solid polymer electrolytes based on polymer blend matrices.

The possibility of preparation SmS films by the chemical method from organic compounds has been studied. For this purpose three types of coordinatively-saturated compounds based on dithiocarbamate complexes were synthesized and studied by various methods.