Learning objectives
Beyond its specific content concerning the experimental techniques dealt with, the main purpose of this course consists, on one hand, in making students understand the basic concepts of modern physics in their experimental evidence, on the other, in helping developing a correct experimental attitude. The latter involves understanding the operation principles of the equipments; developing criticism towards experimental results, namely, taking into account their range of confidence, minimizing the sources of systematic errors, and recognising the possible effect of instrument malfunctions; evaluating the experimental data properly; following good laboratory practice.
Prerequisites
Classical physics; statiscal analysis of experimental data.
Course unit content
The course is divided into two parts, one per trimester. In each of them, each student carries out a couple of experiments.
In the first trimester, students are given the choice among some classical experiments of modern physics (Millikan, Thomson, and Franck-Hertz experiments, photoelectric effect, blackbody radiation spectrum) where minimal intervention on the experimental setup is required, plus a few "open" experiments requiring certain setting-up effort (Brownian motion, optical absorption and fluorescence spectroscopies, viscosity measurements across a sol-gel transition). In the second trimester, the fundamental core is given by magnetic resonances, either nuclear (two experiments) and electron-spin ones. Other proposed experiments are the study of superconductive transitions with transport measurements, and of the angular energy spectrum of gamma rays in Compton scattering.
Full programme
- - -
Bibliography
Richard A.L. Jones, "Soft Condensed Matter"; Eisberg Resnick “Quantum physics";
Charles Kittel, "Introduction to solid state physics";
D. Preston E. Dietz, "The art of experimental physics"
Teaching methods
Each of the two parts of the course is opened by a few introductive lectures (typically 3) aimed at giving the essential theoretical and technical-instrumental background to the the understanding of the experiments. Student groups (2-3 members each) are then lead to run a couple of experiments out of a number of proposed ones, each one taking six laboratory sessions (4 hours each) on average. Laboratory sessions are organized into two shifts at a weekly frequency, resulting in a doubled teaching time with respect to the nominal duration of the course. On one hand, the latter is made necessary by the limited number of experimental stations, on the other, it allows the teacher to adequately supervise students in their experimental work, especially at the initial stage. During each experiment, however, students are encouraged to develop increasing autonomy in using the equipment and evaluating the experimental results.
Assessment methods and criteria
Learning verification takes first place in the laboratory sessions, thanks to the continuous presence of the teacher. Students are then supposed to write a report on each experiment, describing in some detail the experiment goal, the available instrumentation, the results obtained. The final examination consists in a colloquium on the experiment reports.
Other information
- - -
