Z-scan is a technique which is used to characterize non linear optical materials.  In order to do z-scan, the quality of the beam should be very high.  The z-scan is a sensitive and simple method/technique that will allow us to determine the magnitude of non-linear absorption (NLA) and the magnitude and the sign of non-linear refractive (NLR) separately for a wide range of materials.  There is therefore the need to expand this database.  Thus, the z-scan technique, which has the advantacge of readily measuring the sign and the type of nonlinearity is a useful tool.

Description of Research

My dissertation topic focuses on identifying the spatiotemporal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain dynamics in patients with schizophrenia. I use neuroimaging technologies, signal processing, and machine learning tools to understand functional connectivity, structure, and regional differences in the brain. In my work, I use an energy landscape technique to analyze resting-state and task-based fMRI data to identify biomarker differences between schizophrenic patients and healthy controls.