APh 77C 3rd Tern 2005-2006

APh 77c Organization, 2006

Senior Laboratory in Applied Physics

Instructor: Prof. Axel Scherer, 203 Sloan Annex, x4691, etcher@its.caltech.edu

Secretary: Kate Finigan, 212 Sloan Annex, x4585, kate@its.caltech.edu

Lab Manager: Dr. Guy DeRose, 213 Sloan Annex, x3423, derose@caltech.edu

Location: sub-basement of Thomas, rooms 002, 0015, 0015A and Steele 035 (plasma). The phone number in Thomas 002 is x4683.

Experiments/Teaching Assistants:

	Experiment Name / location	Teaching Assistant	TA Email	TA phone
1	Plasma Waves – 035 Steele	Deepak Kumar	deeku@caltech.edu	x3986
2	Blackbody Radiation – 002	Scott Miserendino	scott@mems.caltech.edu	x8477
3	X-ray Diffraction – 0015	Uday Khankhoje	uday@caltech.edu	X1725
4	High Temperature Superconductivity – 0015	NOT OFFERED
5	Fiber Optics - 002	Chris Walker	walker@caltech.edu	x4578
6	Fluid Turbulence - 002	Teresa Emery	The1@caltech.edu	X3325
7	Optical Holography – 0015A	Wonhee Lee	wonhee@caltech.edu	X5814
8	Atomic Force Microscopy - 002	Renaud Richard	renaud@caltech.edu	X1770
9	Analog Electronics - 002	George Maltezos	maltezos@caltech.edu	X4578

X-ray Diffraction is a pre-requisite for High Temperature Superconductivity.

Analog Electronics is a pre-requisite for Atomic Force Microscopy.

Grading:

Grading will be performed by the TA's and reviewed by Prof. Scherer. The grading scheme will be as follows:

Prelab questions	5 points
Performance in lab (experimental)	5 points
Lab report (written)	15 points

Lab handouts:

The lab handouts are free and are available from Kate Finigan (8 am-5 pm). These handouts provide documentation for each experiment and indicate what should be done. The handouts also contain prelab questions which should be completed prior to attempting to work in the lab. There may be updates during the term, so check with your TA.

Typical sequence for doing an experiment:

Read the handout on the experiment
Answer the pre-laboratory (prelab) questions. Prelab questions are to be completed without collaboration between lab partners or between lab partners and other students. The only exception to this non-collaboration policy is that students can obtain advice from other students on where to find relevant information. These answers to the prelab questions must be neatly written or typed so that a copy can be provided to the TA.
Make an appointment with the relevant TA during the first week of the experiment to meet in the lab at a mutually convenient time. At this meeting:

Give the TA your answers to the prelab questions. If a student shows up at the meeting without having completed the prelab questions or without having the answers available to provide to the TA, the TA will cancel the meeting (i.e., send the students away), and deduct 2 points from the grade of the unprepared student. You will then have to schedule another meeting with the TA.
Ask the TA questions about anything you do not understand.
The TA will provide guidance on the initial operation of the experiment and will offer advice on any important issues pertaining to the laboratory exercise that are undocumented.

Complete the experiments at times which are suitable for your schedule, but do not interfere with other sections. Record pertinent information in your laboratory book. Operation of the experiment and collection of data will typically be done collaboratively between lab partners.
Analyze your results and write up this analysis in a lab report to stand apart from your lab notebook. The analysis and write-up is to be done without collaboration except that data is shared and students can give each other verbal advice on where to find relevant information or on general methods of approach. In exceptional circumstances where collaboration is unavoidable, the lab reports must clearly state which portions of the analysis were done in collaboration and which portions were done individually. Thus, students may talk to each other, but they should not look at each other’s written analysis. The description of a laboratory report is provided at the end of this document.
Tidy up the laboratory space so that it is ready for the next group.
Hand in your lab report by putting it in the marked file box outside of room 212 Sloan Annex. Kate Finigan will notify the TA that your lab is ready for grading.

Lab books:

Every student should have a lab-book that is to be used to take notes and record data and information during the lab sessions. This will form the basis for generating the laboratory report for each experiment.

Keys and security:

Every student will be issued the combination to the Thomas labs and is responsible for (i) making sure the lab is locked when finished and (ii) not telling the combination to anyone outside the class. You may want to get a key for Thomas building, since it is locked between 5 pm and 8 am. This can be obtained from Christine Silva in 208 Thomas. She will have a student list by Monday, April 3, 2006. Grades will not be issued if keys are not returned and a $25 charge will be made to your student account. Students must follow all safety precautions and warnings regarding the experiments.

Malfunctioning equipment:

If something is broken, please report it immediately via email to the TA and copy the message to Guy DeRose and Prof. Scherer so that it can be repaired.

Computers:

Make personal folders on computers and save your data there. Transmit your data via the network to another computer for safekeeping and analysis. Do not place any software on the computers without permission from the TA’s or Prof. Scherer. Do not use the lab computers for purposes other than APh77.

Partners and Sections:

Students will work in pairs subject to the collaboration policy listed on page 2. Each pair will work on one experiment for two weeks and will do four experiments during the term. There is no time available for make-up sessions. There will be two sections: A and B. Each section will have use of the lab for half time; section A the first half of the week (MTW) and section B for the second half of the week (ThFS). The calendar for the two sections and lab report due dates are shown below:

Section A Calendar:

	In-lab time (MTW)	Lab report due date
1st Experiment	Apr 3-5 & Apr 10-12	Apr 17
2^nd Experiment	Apr 17-19 & Apr 24-26	May 1
3^rd Experiment	May 1-3 & May 8-10	May 15
4^th Experiment	May 15-17 & May 22-24	May 30

Section B Calendar:

	In-lab time (ThFS)	Lab report due date
1^st Experiment	Apr 6-8 & Apr 13-15	Apr 20
2^nd Experiment	Apr 20-22 & Apr 27-29	May 4
3^rd Experiment	May 4-6 & May 11-13	May 18
4^th Experiment	May 18-20 & May 25-27	June 2

Penalties for late submission of lab reports:

Late 1-3 days: 2 points off

Late 4-6 days: 4 points off

Late 6-10 days : 6 points off

Not scheduling initial TA

meeting during the first week

of the experiment: 5 points off

These penalties may be waived for a valid reason by the TA provided (i) a new firm date for submission is arranged and (ii) Dr. Scherer is informed by the student by e-mail of the change and of the TA's approval. TA’s may only extend the due date by one week.

End of term:

This class follows the senior schedule for all students, so TA’s must complete all grading by June 5 and submit graded reports to Dr. Scherer for review by 5pm on June 5.

List of Reserved Books

(3 hours daytime, or overnight after 10pm)

other books may be added later

Holography

1. R. J. Collier: Optical Holography, Academic Press, 1971

2. E. Hecht and Zajac: Optics, Addison-Wesley, 1974 (or any later edition)

3. J. Hansen, B. Schlesinger and F. Unterseher: Holography Handbook: Making Holograms the Easy Way, Ross Books, 1987

Fluid

1. I.G. Currie, Fundamental Mechanics of Fluids, McGraw Hill, 1993, 2nd Ed.

2. Sabersky, Acosta, & Hauptmann, Fluid Flow: A First Course in Fluid Mechanics, Macmillan, 1989, 3rd Ed.

X-ray

1. B. D. Cullity, Elements of X-ray Diffraction (Addison-Wesley, 1967)

2. A. Guinier, X-ray Diffraction (W. H. Freeman, 1967)

3. W. B. Pearson, Handbook of Lattice Spacings and Structures of Metals, (Pergamon, 1967).

Blackbody

The Feynman Lectures on Physics, (Addison-Wesley, 1965), Vol III.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. Who is the TA?
Every laboratory exercise has a teaching assistant associated with it. The TAs will read and grade your laboratory reports and determine if the pre-laboratory exercises were completed successfully.

2. What do I need to do before coming in the lab?
Read all information in the lab handout carefully and come with any questions you have in mind. Also become familiar with the references available to you. Be sure to check out at least one of the two books mentioned in the lab manual. Review all information in this document to get a feel for the setup to maximize your useful time spent in the lab. Of course - don't forget writing up the pre-lab and preparing a clearly written or typed copy for the laboratory TA.

5. Do you really think I'm going to read two textbooks to do this lab?
No. C'mon, you know the drill. The two books mentioned in the lab are for your reference purposes only - and they are only two out of many that you can use. You should scan through each book and see whether its contents are of any use to you. Topics of interest (in the case of fluid turbulence) include jet flow, submerged jets, turbulence, transition, and others. Be sure to reference any books you wind up using in your lab notebook - this helps me see where you're coming from, and will help you greatly when you look back on this lab in the future.

6. What are you looking for in a lab report?

Your laboratory reports are the central document from which most of your APh-77 grade will be determined. These serve as the equivalent of a senior thesis, although the individual reports are shorter and more concise. A typical laboratory report must include an introduction, procedure, experimental results and conclusion section, typed with all of your pertinent data attached to the end of the report. Every laboratory report should include an:

Introduction (aim): What was the purpose of this laboratory exercise? What did you expect to learn?

Procedure: How did you obtain the results? What precise experimental conditions did you use to obtain your results? This section should provide the reader enough information to repeat your results and reach the same conclusions.

Experimental results: What did you measure and how did changes in conditions influence your measurements?

Discussion and Conclusions: Describe what you have learned from this laboratory exercise, and what the impact of the results you have measured could be. Also feel free to describe any further experiments that could be conducted to improve the laboratory exercise.

Include all of the results (copies or scanned information) from the laboratory exercises at the end of the laboratory report, and refer to them in the written part of the report.

Format of the report

The report should be written with >10point font, 4-6 pages in length, and double-spaced on 8.5x11 inch plain paper. For further information, feel free to visit the AIP website (www.aip.org) for submission requirements of publications submitted to Applied Physics Letters. The same format should be used in your laboratory reports. The reports will be evaluated by the TA and then provided to Professor Scherer and/or Dr. DeRose to determine your grade. You should have prepared one report for each of your laboratory exercises during the term, and these reports will be provided back to you at by the end of the term. The laboratory reports are due at the dates listed in the table above, and no exceptions will be made for late reports (unless unavoidable medical conditions occur).

7. Purpose of the laboratory report

We expect you to demonstrate your 'understanding' of the laboratory exercise in your laboratory report. We expect you to understand the equations you write in the pre-lab section, and document the sources you used to derive them. A good rule of thumb - if you don't understand what an equation is, don't write it down...ask for help. Also, we want to have a detailed description of what you did in the lab. Do not simply copy the procedure. We want to know the specifics of how you determined the results in your laboratory report - show any equations you use, no matter how simple/obvious they may seem to you. Present your results clearly using well-organized graphs and tables. (Label all pictures!) Finally, discuss you results in detail ... tell us what you learned! Note: this is meant as a guide to help you focus on the important things in writing your lab report. It is by no means exhaustive. You still, for example, are expected to answer the questions mentioned in lab book. We also welcome any comments and suggestions you may have that might help us improve this experiment in the future. This may be done in the Discussion and Conclusion sections of your report. Good suggestions may be worth extra considerations.

Scheduling worksheet

Please return this sheet to Dr. DeRose at the end of the organizational meeting.

Name (print clearly): ______________________________________________________

Student account number (to be charged $25 if Steele key not returned) _______________

So or Jr or Sr (circle)

Check which description is correct for you:

□ Registered in class, definitely taking class

□ Not yet registered, definitely taking class

□ Not registered, thinking about taking class, not sure

APh option or ______________________

Address: _____________________________

Telephone________________________________

email: _____________________________________

Who (if anyone) do you want to be your partner? _____________________________

(Attach your sheets together. Check that your preferences are similar.)

Section preference (circle one):

must have A

prefer A

Don’t care

prefer B

must have B

Preferences for experiments Rank all of them

(if you have taken the class before, state which experiments you did before)

	Experiment Name	Choice (1 for 1^st choice, etc.)	Check here if you did this experiment before
1.	Plasma Waves
2.	Blackbody
3.	X-ray Diffraction (*pre-req for High-T_c)
4.	High temperature superconductivity *	Not offered	Not offered
5.	Fiber Optics
6.	Fluid Turbulence
7.	Holography
8.	Atomic Force Microscope*
9.	Analog electronics (*pre-req for AFM)

You will shortly be notified by email of the final schedule, which will be assembled taking into account everybody's preferences.