Dr. Todd Maddern
- Position
- Research Fellow
- Institution
- School of Chemistry, Physics and Earth Sciences, Flinders University
- Expertise
- Radical beam production using pyrolysis and photolysis, pulsed supersonic expansions, skimmed supersonic relative density method, electron momentum spectroscopy, time of flight mass spectroscopy, supersonic biomolecule beam production, electron gun autotuning software, experimental design and construction
- Research in the Centre
- Todd's PhD studies, undertaken at Flinders University, involved the development of an ion collection and detection method to improve sensitivity in the search for neutrinoless double beta decay. he then had a sojourn in Antarctica undertaking some ionospheric research and then a period working in private industry as a marketing manager. Todd returned to Flinders in 2001 to work with Michael Brunger and Stephen Buckman to develop and commission a new experiment to measure absolute differential cross sections for electron scattering from molecular radicals relevant to the semiconductor industry. In late 2007, the first absolute elastic differential cross sections for electron scattering from the CF2 radical were published in Physical Review Letters. To allow these measurements to be made, Todd developed a new method - coined the skimmed supersonic relative density method (SSRDM) - to allow absolute cross sections to be measured from species delivered to the scattering region as a skimmed supersonic expansion, implemented an autotuning electron spectrometer, and designed a supersonic pyrolytic nozzle to enable generation of molecular radicals. Todd is currently attempting to measure radical cross sections at incident energies of less than 10 eV. Recently, Todd designed a nozzle that, in colloboration with Vincent Jamier and Susan Smith, he used to successfully produce pure biomolecule beams into a vacuum chamber for the purposesof electron spectroscopy.
