The mission of this section is to conduct theoretical and computational investigations of electromagnetic radiation processes in various electronic systems. The electronic systems of current interest include atomic ions in high-temperature plasmas, free electrons in energetic electron beams, and quantum-confined electrons in semiconductor microcrystals. Particular emphasis is placed on density-matrix descriptions, and computer calculations are based on the methods of relativistic quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics.
Verne Jacobs received a B. S. degree in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1964. The title of his undergraduate thesis was "Energy Bands in Diamond by the APW Method," and this research was carried out under the supervision of Professor John C. Slater. He received a Ph. D. degree in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1968. At Berkeley he conducted research in solid state theory under the supervision of Professor Charles Kittel and in atomic theory under the supervision of Professors Charles L. Schwartz and Kenneth M. Watson. The title of his Ph. D. thesis was "Variational Calculations of Correlation Effects in Light Atoms." From 1968 to 1971, he held a Weizmann Fellowship working at the Weizmann Institute of Science, in Israel, with Professor Chaim L. Pekeris. His post-doctoral research work was centered on radiative transitions of two-electron atomic systems. This research was continued, in collaboration with Philip G. Burke, during a second post-doctoral appointment at the Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, from 1971 to 1972. The investigation on atomic radiative transitions was also continued, in collaboration with Aaron Temkin, during the tenure of a National Academy of Sciences - Resident Research Associateship, from 1972 to 1974, at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland.
From 1974 to 1977, Verne Jacobs worked for Science Applications, Inc., on atomic radiation processes in plasmas, under a contract with the Naval Research Laboratory. In 1977, he became a research physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory. His present position is that of Consultant for Atomic Radiation Processes, in the Complex Systems Theory Branch of the Condensed Matter and Radiation Science Division. Verne Jacobs has been an author of approximately 60 publications on atomic physics and an organizer of five scientific workshops and conferences. In 1989, he was an invited participant in the program on "Atoms and Ions in Strongly Coupled Plasmas," at the Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California. In 1985, he was elected to Fellowship in the American Physical Society.
Current interests include atomic radiative processes in electron-ion beam interactions and in high-temperature plasmas, with particular emphasis on dielectronic recombination and other processes involving autoionization resonances; coherent radiation processes of energetic electrons in crystal lattices, such as coherent bremsstrahlung and channeling radiation; radiative interactions in quantum-confinement system, e. g., semiconductor heterostructures; and coherent radiation processes involving relativistic electrons in electric and magnetic fields. Density-matrix and Liouville-space projection operator techniques are employed, which facilitate a self-consistent description of level-population kinetics and spectral-line shapes and lead to a unified investigation of the angular distribution and polarization of radiative emissions.
Return to the Code 6390 Home Page.