Physics 251: Experimental Atomic Physics
Fall 2009
The labs meet: Wednesdays and Thursdays, 2.00 - 5.00 p.m. in Millington 305
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 assistants: Joshua Magee Katya Mastropas |
E-mails: jmagee[at]wm.edu emastropas[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.
PHYS-251 Photo contest!
Previous photos: 2007
2008
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.
Individual Project descriptions
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Experiment/group |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
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Week 0 |
Aug 26,27 |
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Optical Interferometry |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
|
Week 1 |
Sept 2,3 |
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He-Ne laser |
3 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
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Week 2 |
Sept 9,10 |
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h/e |
2 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
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Week 3 |
Sept 16,17 |
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Black body radiation |
4 |
4 |
4 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
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Week 4 |
Sept 23,24 |
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Electron diffraction |
5 |
5 |
6 |
6 |
7 |
7 |
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Week 5 |
Sept 30, Oct 1 |
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e/m |
6 |
6 |
5 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
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Week 6 |
Oct 7,8 |
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Single photon interference |
7 |
7 |
8 |
8 |
6 |
6 |
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Week 7 |
Oct 14,15 |
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Atomic spectroscopy |
8 |
8 |
7 |
7 |
8 |
8 |
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Week 8 |
Oct 21,22 |
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Supercondactivity |
9 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
9 |
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Week 9 |
Oct 28,19 |
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10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
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Week 10 |
Nov 4,5 |
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|
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
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Week 11 |
Nov 11,12 |
|
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Lab tour |
11 |
11 |
11 |
11 |
11 |
11 |
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Week 12 |
Nov 18,19 |
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Presentations |
13 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
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Week 13 |
Dec 2,3 |
Lab manuals and course materials
Instructions for Igor Pro download and operation
Lab preparation: It is your responsibility to study the physics background for each lab before coming to class using the recommended textbook or any other available material of your choice. 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.
Please come to the lab prepared to work hard for the whole duration of the lab period. Do not be late, since your lab partners will have to wait for you to start working on the experiment. Also, try not to plan anything immediately after the lab in case the work is taking longer than expected.
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 5% 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.
Individual Projects and Presentations: During the weeks 10 and 12 each group will be working at individual experiments. The assignment of projects between groups will be done later in the semester. These projects are designed to be more open-ended compare to the standard experiment. In particular, no formal step-by-step lab manual will be provided, and each group will have to work out their own experimental procedure and approach to the data analysis based on the skills they developed earlier in the course.
During the last week of classes we will have a "conference" where each group will give 15-20 minutes talk about their experiments. All group members will participate in the presentation. More details about this event later.
Final grade: 75% regular lab reports (first 9 experiments + lab tour); 25% individual projects (15% lab report + 10% presentation)
All students are required to complete all experiments and submit all lab reports in order to pass the course, but the lowest report grade will be dropped from the final average. Failure to turn in all the reports will result in automatic failure of this course.