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John Nibarger (Fed)
Group Leader: Boulder Microfabrication Facility
Dr. John Nibarger is the manager and group leader of the Boulder Microfabrication Facility (BMF) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Based in the headquarters of the Physical Measurement Laboratory (PML) he is responsible for the oversight and management of the BMF cleanroom facility, a 1700 m2 (18,000 ft2), ISO class 5 (class 100) clean room, which provides state-of-the-art micro- and nano-fabrication capabilities to meet the microelectronic and microelectromechanical systems needs of NIST-Boulder staff members and their direct collaborators. Roughly 60 % of all the research on the NIST, Boulder site passes through the BMF in one critical way or another.
Dr. Nibarger received his B.S. in Physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, studying experimental high energy particle physics and his Ph.D. degree in Physics from the University of Connecticut studying femtosecond dynamics of atoms and molecules in strong laser fields. Following postdoctoral research at NIST, Boulder in thin film magnetization dynamics he joined the advanced product development team in recording head operations at StorageTek where he designed magnetic read and write heads for tape storage applications. In 2010, John went back to NIST to do cleanroom fabrication for focal planes of astronomical telescopes working to understand cosmic microwave background polarization. He became the manager of the BMF 2011 where he is presently. John has over 70 publications in peer-reviewed journals in the areas of in atomic, molecular, and optical physics, magnetism and condensed matter physics, and astrophysics and cosmology. He holds 17 United States patents in the area of magnetic recording technology.
Selected Publications
Title: Direct observation of excited state fragments following molecular ionization and dissociation in strong fields
Date: December 13, 1999
Authors: Nibarger, JP; Li, M; Menon, S; Gibson, GN
Description: Using a new double pulse technique, we have observed for the first time that charge asymmetric dissociation in diatomic molecules leaves one of the fragments in an electronically excited state.
Title: Magnetic Head Having AMR Reader, Writer, and GMR Reader
Date: June 3, 2008
Authors: John P. Nibarger, Francis X. Campos, and Larry E. Daby. “Magnetic Head Having AMR Reader, Writer, and GMR Reader”.
Description: United States Patent 7,382,585 protects key intellectual property for a dual read head technology allowing for backward compatibility with existing magnetic data installation base. This patent protected of $2B worth of shipped product.
Title: An 84 Pixel All-Silicon Corrugated Feedhorn for CMB Measurements
Date: May 25, 2012
Authors: Nibarger, JP; Beall, JA; Becker, D; Britton, J; Cho, HM; Fox, A; Hilton, GC; Hubmayr, J; Li, D; McMahon, J; Niemack, MD; Irwin, KD; Van Lanen, J; Yoon, KW
Description: Silicon platelet corrugated feedhorn arrays for cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements at millimeter wavelengths (130 GHz to 170 GHz) have been developed for deployment for the polarization-sensitive upgrade to both the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACTpol) and the South Pole Telescope (SPTpol).
Title: Ferromagnetic resonance linewidth in metallic thin films: Comparison of measurement methods
Date: May 1, 2006
Authors: Kalarickal, SS; Krivosik, P; Wu, MZ; Patton, CE; Schneider, ML; Kabos, P; Silva, TJ; Nibarger, JP
Description: Stripline (SL), vector network analyzer (VNA), and pulsed inductive microwave magnetometer (PIMM) techniques were used to measure the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) linewidth for a series of Permalloy films with thicknesses of 50 and 100 nm.
Title: Detection of B-Mode Polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background with Data from the South Pole Telescope
Date: September 30, 2013
Authors:
Hanson, D; Hoover, S; Crites, A; Ade, PAR; Aird, KA; Austermann, JE; Beall, JA; Bender, AN; Benson, BA; Bleem, LE; Bock, JJ; Carlstrom, JE; Chang, CL; Chiang, HC; Cho, HM; Conley, A; Crawford, TM; de Haan, T; Dobbs, MA; Everett, W; Gallicchio, J; Gao, J; George, EM; Halverson, NW; Harrington, N; Henning, JW; Hilton, GC; Holder, GP; Holzapfel, WL; Hrubes, JD; Huang, N; Hubmayr, J; Irwin, KD; Keisler, R; Knox, L; Lee, AT; Leitch, E; Li, D; Liang, C; Luong-Van, D; Marsden, G; McMahon, JJ; Mehl, J; Meyer, SS; Mocanu, L; Montroy, TE; Natoli, T; Nibarger, JP; Novosad, V; Padin, S; Pryke, C; Reichardt, CL; Ruhl, JE; Saliwanchik, BR; Sayre, JT; Schaffer, KK; Schulz, B; Smecher, G; Stark, AA; Story, KT; Tucker, C; Vanderlinde, K; Vieira, JD; Viero, MP; Wang, G; Yefremenko, V; Zahn, O; Zemcov, M
Description: In this Letter we present the first detection of gravitational lensing B modes, using first-season data from the polarization-sensitive receiver on the South Pole Telescope (SPTpol).
Title: Ultrafast electron dynamics in femtosecond optical breakdown of dielectrics
Date: March 15, 1999
Authors: Li, M (Li, M) ; Menon, S (Menon, S) ; Nibarger, JP (Nibarger, JP) ; Gibson, GN (Gibson, GN)
Description: Optical breakdown threshold (OBT) in dielectrics was measured with different band gaps for single and double 25-fs 800-nm transform-limited laser pulses. Pump-probe double pulse measurements indicate that the plasma energy in dielectrics experiences ultrafast decay which lasts only similar to 100 fs and does not follow an exponential decay curve.
Title: THE ATACAMA COSMOLOGY TELESCOPE: THE POLARIZATION-SENSITIVE ACTPol INSTRUMENT
Date: December 1, 2016
Authors: Thornton, RJ; Ade, PAR; Aiola, S; Angile, FE; Amiri, M; Beall, JA; Becker, DT; Cho, HM; Choi, SK; Corlies, P; Coughlin, KP; Datta, R; Devlin, MJ; Dicker, SR; Dunner, R; Fowler, JW; Fox, AE; Gallardo, PA; Gao, J; Grace, E; Halpern, M; Hasselfield, M; Henderson, SW; Hilton, GC; Hincks, AD; Ho, SP; Hubmayr, J; Irwin, KD; Klein, J; Koopman, B; Li, DL; Louis, T; Lungu, M; Maurin, L; McMahon, J; Munson, CD; Naess, S; Nati, F; Newburgh, L; Nibarger, J; Niemack, MD; Niraula, P; Nolta, MR; Page, LA; Pappas, CG; Schillaci, A; Schmitt, BL; Sehgal, N; Sievers, JL; Simon, SM; Staggs, ST; Tucker, C; Uehara, M; van Lanen, J; Ward, JT; Wollack, EJ
Description: The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) makes high angular resolution measurements of anisotropies in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) at millimeter wavelengths. We describe ACTPol, an upgraded receiver for ACT, which uses feedhorn-coupled, polarization-sensitive detector arrays, a 3 degrees field of view, 100 mK cryogenics with continuous cooling, and meta material antireflection coatings.
Awards
2013 Safety Award: "For pioneering new multidisciplinary and cross-organizational approaches to complex safety challenges in the new Precision Measurement Laboratory." Alexandra Curtin, Timothy Drapela, Kavita Jeerage, John Moreland, John Nibarger, Trudi Peppler and Thomas Mitchell Wallis