THUC T. MAI

NRC Fellow - National Institute of Standards and Technology - Email: thuc.mai@nist.gov

EDUCATION Ph.D., Physics Aug 2014 – May 2019

The Ohio State University | Columbus, OH, USA

M.S., Physics Aug 2012 – Aug 2014

The Ohio State University | Columbus, OH, USA 

B.S., Physics Aug 2007 – May 2011

Syracuse University | Syracuse, NY, USA

Minor: Applied Mathematics 

RESEARCH Research Assistant Jan 2014 – April 2019

EXPERIENCE The Ohio State University (OSU)

Advisor: Rolando Valdés Aguilar

 Ultrafast laser skills:

 Operated and maintained a high-power ultrafast laser system from Coherent,

which includes: Legend Elite, Topas, Vitara, Evolution

 Operated and maintained a Femtolaser Core 20 Ti:Sapphire oscillator

 Designed, built, maintained, and operated multiple time-domain terahertz (THz)

spectrometers, in transmission and reflection geometry

 THz sources and detectors used: LT-GaAs photoconductive antenna, ZnTe,

GaP, GaSe, ambient atmosphere plasma, tri-layer of W/CoFe/Pt

 Performed THz studies on quantum materials, such as: skyrmion magnet (FeGe),

novel multiferroics (Sr2FeSi2O7, BaFe12O19), quantum magnets (CaFe2O4, α-RuCl3),

5d transition metal oxides (Na2IrO3, Sr2IrO4)

 Design and engineering skills:

 Designed a mechanical rotating device for THz polarizer, an apparatus that can

modulate the THz polarization up to 100 Hz

 Used Solidworks, Autodesk Inventor to design mechanical parts

 Programming, scripting and analysis skills:

 Wrote LabVIEW software for instrument control and data acquisition

 Used Mathematica to simulate the THz polarization measurement

 Used Igor Pro to numerically solve for the optical properties from THz data

 Used Mathematica, Igor Pro to fit the materials’ properties with known

theoretical models

 Used Mathematica to simulate the effects corrective algorithms, such as cubic

spline and higher order interpolation, on non-uniform sampling in time-domain

terahertz spectroscopy

 Cryogenic skills:

 Operated and maintained a closed-cycle optical cryostat from Janis Research

Company

 Operated and maintained an Oxford Spectromag, a liquid helium optical

cryostat with a superconducting magnet

Visiting Scientist 

NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Gaithersburg, MD, USA

Sponsor: Angela Hight-Walker

 Performed Raman Spectroscopy measurement on α-RuCl3

 Carried out multiple Lorentzians fitting procedure on Raman spectra

Used group theory’s tensor analysis to explain fitting results
Undergraduate Student Intern 

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos, NM, USA

Supervisor: Cynthia Reichhardt June 2018

 Modified and run a numerical simulation program in C

Simulated the movement of bacteria across an asymmetric barrier

 

CONFERENCES Gordon Research Seminar and Conference: Multiferroics Aug 2018

& WORKSHOPS Bates College, Lewiston, ME, USA

American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting March 2015, 2016, 2017

Various locations, USA

Autumn School on Correlated Electrons: Quantum Sept 2016

Materials: Experiments and Theory

Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany 

Spin-Orbit Coupling and Magnetism in Correlated Transition May 2015

Metal Oxides Workshop

OSU, Columbus, OH, USA

Institute for Materials Research (IMR) Materials Week May 2014, 2015, 2018

OSU, Columbus, OH, USA

PRESENTATION Gordon Research Seminar and Conference: Multiferroics Aug 2018

Bates College, Lewiston, ME, USA

Poster presentation: “Terahertz Excitation of Magnon Modes in

the Orthorhombic Antiferromagnet CaFe2O4”

IMR Materials Week May 2018

OSU, Columbus, OH, USA

Poster presentation: “Magnetic excitations in CaFe2O4”

3MT (3 Minute Thesis) Competition: May 2018

“Magnets, Light, and Technology”

OSU, Columbus, OH USA

Finalist

APS March Meeting 2018 March 2018

Los Angeles, CA, USA

Oral presentation: “Terahertz excitation of magnon modes in

CaFe2O4”

APS March Meeting 2017 March 2017

New Orleans, LA, USA

Oral presentation: “Tests of Terahertz Circular Birefringence in

Sr2IrO4 thin films” 

THUC T. MAI

NRC Fellow - National Institute of Standards and Technology - Email: thuc.mai@nist.gov
Autumn School on Correlated Electrons: Sept 2016

Quantum Materials: Experiments and Theory

Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany

Poster presentation: “Terahertz excitations of spin-orbital ground

state in multiferroic Sr2FeSi2O7”

APS March Meeting 2016 March 2016

Baltimore, MD, USA

Oral presentation: “Terahertz excitations of spin-orbital ground

state in multiferroic Sr2FeSi2O7”

Spin-Orbit Coupling and Magnetism in Correlated May 2015

Transition Metal Oxides Workshop

OSU, Columbus, OH, USA

Poster presentation: “Terahertz Spectroscopy on Multiferroic

Sr2FeSi2O7”

APS March Meeting 2015 March 2015

San Antonio, TX, USA

Oral presentation: “Terahertz study of potential multiferroic

materials Sr2FeSi2O7 and BaFe12O19” 

PUBLICATIONS Thuc T. Mai, M. Azhar, E. Barts, L. Zhang, S.-W. Cheong, M. Mostovoy, R. Valdes

Aguilar, “Orthorhombic Magnons in CaFe2O4”

In preparation

A. M. Potts, T. T. Mai, M. T. Warren, and R. Valdés Aguilar, "Corrective re-gridding

techniques for non-uniform sampling in time-domain terahertz spectroscopy," J. Opt.

Soc. Am. B 36, 1037-1043 (2019) 

Thuc T. Mai, C. Svoboda, M.T. Warren, T.-H. Jang, J. Brangham, Y.H. Jeong, S-W.

Cheong, R. Valdés Aguilar, “Terahertz Spin-Orbital Excitations in the paramagnetic state

of multiferroic Sr2FeSi2O7”, PHYSICAL REVIEW B 94, 224416 (2016)

C.J. Olson Reichhardt, J. Drocco, T. Mai, M.B. Wan, and C. Reichhardt, “Active matter

on asymmetric substrates” Conference on Optical Trapping and Micromanipulation,

Proc. SPIE 8097, 80970A (2011)

TEACHING Graduate Teaching Assistant Aug 2012 – May 2014

Jan 2016 – May 2016 EXPERIENCE OSU

Aug 2016 – May 2017 Columbus, OH, USA

Instructed students in recitations and laboratory classes

Conducted exam reviews and tutoring sessions outside of scheduled classes

MENTORING Graduate Student Mentor for REU Program Summer 2016, 2018

EXPERIENCE (Research Experiences for Undergraduates)

OSU Physics Department’s First Year Mentoring Aug 2015 – 2017

THUC T. MAI

NRC Fellow - National Institute of Standards and Technology - Email: thuc.mai@nist.gov
PROGRAMMING SKILLS AFFILIATIONS

Proficient in: Member of OSU’s Physics May 2016 – May 2017

C, C++, Python Graduate Students Council

Certified LabVIEW Associate Developer

(CLAD) Member of the American Jan 2015 – Present

Mathematica, Igor Pro, Octave Physical Society (APS)

Shell Scripts (C, Bash)

COMMUNITY The Ohio Academy of Science – State Science Day May 12, 2018

SERVICE

Scientific Thinkers at Innis Elementary School Fall 2015, Fall 2017

Instructed/demonstrated scientific principles to 1st – 5th

grade students through simple experiments

Breakfast of Science Champions for Hilltonia Middle School Nov 8, 2017

Science Day at Innis Elementary School Dec 2015, 2016, 2017

Ohio Science Olympiad 2015 April 2015

THUC T. MAI

NRC Fellow - National Institute of Standards and Technology - Email: thuc.mai@nist.gov