Thomas Rao (Fed)

Dr. Thomas Rao (ORCiD) is a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the Neutron Physics Group. He is interested in precision measurements of fundamental physics, including tests of the Standard Model of Particle Physics, using neutrons. His current research is primarily focused on the development novel cryogenic detectors known as charged particle Thermal Kinetic Inductance detectors (CP-TKIDs), which have applications for next-generation neutron beta decay experiments. He is also involved with alpha-gamma counting for high precision neutron fluence measurements.

Dr. Rao received his B.S. in physics from Stony Brook University and his Ph.D. from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During his graduate work he was a member of the nEDM@SNS collaboration, which aimed to develop a cryogenic apparatus for measuring the neutron’s electric dipole moment that utilized a ³He comagnetometer. Specifically, his dissertation was focused on measurements of ³He transport in superfluid helium required for the experiment. After graduate school he continued as part of the nEDM@SNS collaboration as Postdoctoral Scholar at North Carolina State University. This work was focused on developing polarized ³He injection system to deliver room temperature polarized ³He into a superfluid helium volume. He also helped develop SQUID magnetometers with built in cryo-switches that could be used in nuclear magnetic resonance measurements of polarized ³He and neutrons in superfluid.

Selected Publications

1. T. Rao et al. “MEOP based ³He polarization and injection system for experiments below 1 K” (2025) JINST 20 P01007
2. Graham Medlin et al. “External Moderation of Reactor Core Neutrons for Optimized Production of Ultra-Cold Neutrons” J. Nucl. Eng. (2024). 5(4), 486-499
3. T. Rao and R. Golub “Heuristic approach to trajectory correlation functions in bounded regions with Lambert scattering walls” Physics Letters A. Volume 512, (2024), 129599
4. Ekaterina Korobkina et al. “Growing solid deuterium for UCN production” Journal of Neutron Research 24 (2022), 1-13
5. T. Rao “Transport of 3He for the nEDM experiment at the SNS” doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (2019) https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/items/112711
6. M. W. Ahmed et al. “A new cryogenic apparatus to search for the neutron electric dipole moment” (2019) JINST 14 P11017