With WU Since 1986

Credentials
B.A., Macalester College (1978)
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin (1986)

Research Interests
Dr. Bigelow's research interests include Materials Science and Nuclear Physics. In recent work, she has characterized metallic and ceramic thin film crystal alignment to determine the success of film fabrication and the effects of crystal alignment on film properties. Two materials studied were a metallic multilayer of low-temperature superconducting thin films, Nb/Ti, and a ceramic high-temperature superconducting thin film, YBCO.

Dr. Bigelow is now looking at materials in the area of Responsive Materials. Some examples of these materials are piezoelectric, shape-memory alloys, and magnetostrictive materials. The same material can be used as an actuator and as a sensor. Changing a material property through some stimulus causes the material to act as an actuator and producing a signal by changing the material property the material acts as a sensor. A piezoelectric material for example, will change its size when a voltage is applied and it will produce an electrical signal when compressed or stretched.

2003-2004 Sabbatical Leave
Professor Bigelow traveled to Monash University outside of Melbourne Australia for her 2003-2004 sabbatical leave. She's been doing library research on various subjects that impact her understanding of responsive materials, especially the shape memory alloy of gold cadmium. The subjects Professor Bigelow has been researching are shape memory alloys, Mössbauer spectroscopy, and Martensitic phase transitions. This is an interesting phase transition because the crystal structure of the material changes; not through large-scale motion of the atoms but through slight displacement of atoms relative to their neighbors, thus it is called a diffusionless transition.

Professor Bigelow is also learning new research techniques involving two instruments: (1) a temperature dependent differential interference contrast (DIC) microscope with sample temperatures ranging between liquid nitrogen and several hundred degrees Celsius, and (2) a Mössbauer spectrometer capable of running at liquid helium temperatures or -269 degrees Celsius. Professor Bigelow's immediate plans are to investigate the aging process exhibited by some shape memory alloys.