Physics 251: Experimental Atomic Physics
Fall 2008
The labs meet: Wednesdays and Thursdays, 2.00 - 5.00 p.m. in Small 205
Instructor: Irina Novikova
Office: Small 332 |
E-mail: ixnovi[at]wm.edu |
Office hours: by appointment |
Telephone: (757) 221-3693 |
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Web-site: http://www.physics.wm.edu/~inovikova/phys251/phys251.htm |
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Teaching assistant: Joshua Magee |
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Office: Small 243 |
E-mail: jmagee [at]wm.edu |
Office hours: by appointment (grading questions only) |
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Recommended texts:
Melissinos and Napolitano: Experiments in Modern Physics, 2nd Ed., Academic Press.
G. L. Squires: Practical Physics, 4th Ed., Cambridge.
New! Photo contest: One beautiful experiment - 2008!
Last year's photos.
Schedule of the experiments
The content of each cell indicates the week(s) during which the experiment will be carried out by an individual group.
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Experiment/group |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
|
Week 0 |
Aug.27,28 |
|
Speed of light |
1 |
2 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
9 |
10 |
|
Week 1 |
Sept 3,4 |
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Michelson interferometer |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
|
Week 2 |
Sept 10,11 |
|
Fabri-Perot interferometer |
3 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
4 |
|
Week 3 |
Sept 17,18 |
|
Single photon interference |
4 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
5 |
6 |
6 |
|
Week 4 |
Sept 24,25 |
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h/e |
5 |
5 |
5 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
|
Week 5 |
Oct 1,2 |
|
Black body radiation |
6 |
6 |
7 |
7 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
|
Week 6 |
Oct 8,9 |
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Electron diffraction |
7 |
7 |
6 |
6 |
8 |
8 |
5 |
5 |
|
Week 7 |
Oct 15,16 |
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e/m |
8 |
8 |
8 |
9 |
7 |
6 |
7 |
7 |
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Week 8 |
Oct 22,23 |
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He-Ne laser |
9 |
9 |
9 |
11 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
8 |
|
Week 9 |
Oct 29,30 |
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Supercondactivity |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
11 |
11 |
11 |
11 |
|
Week 10 |
Nov 5,6 |
|
Atomic spectroscopy |
11 |
11 |
11 |
8 |
9 |
9 |
8 |
9 |
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Week 11 |
Nov 12,13 |
|
Lab tour |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
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Week 12 |
Nov 19,20 |
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Presentations |
13 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
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Week 13 |
Dec 3,4 |
Lab manuals and course materials
Instructions for Igor Pro download and operation
Lab preparation: Come to the lab prepared to work hard for the whole duration of the lab period. You are required to understand the relevant physics and read the lab write-up for each experiment before the laboratory period. Although there is no formal pre-lab testing, an instructor reserves the right not to allow an unprepared student to take the lab, since this affect the work of others, and may be unsafe for some experiments.
Experimental procedure: Each group is required to keep a lab book with accurate records of experimental activities. The lab book should be a composition style notebook with either line or quadrangle ruling or a computation logbook. Photocopies of the corresponding lab book pages should be attached to the lab reports.
Lab reports: Lab reports are due next lab meeting - one week after the lab is completed. Late submissions will normally result in 10% late fee per day. Collaboration during the experiment is expected, but lab reports should be individually done.
Lab report preparation guidelines.
Make-up labs: there is no separate time for make-up labs. Consult the instructor about possibility to finish a missed lab with the other section.
Presentations: During the last week of classes we will have a "conference" where each group will give 15-20 minutes talk about one of the experiments. All group members will participate in the presentation. More details about this event later.
Final grade: 90% lab reports + 10% presentations
All students are required to complete all experiments and submit all lab reports in order to pass the course, but the lowest grade will be dropped from the final average. Failure to turn in all the reports will result in automatic failure of this course.