Teaching Schedule for Academic Year 2006-07
- Physics 316 - Optics and Wave Physics Laboratory (Fall 2006)
- Physics 322 - Physical Measurements Lab (Sp 2007 T-Th 1:00 - 5:00 pm)
Physics of thin film, (PHY 589) |
Optics and wave physics laboratory (Phy 316) |
Introduction to solid state physics (Phy 472) |
Physical measurements laboratory (Phy 322) |
1. Physics of thin films (Phy 589, Fall 01, Enrollment: 9 students, Rating: 8.4/10)
The focus
of this graduate level course was to introduce and explain
the key physical concepts in thin film deposition, growth and
characterization. The course contents included vacuum science, physics
of crystal growth including nucleation and growth modes, thin film
characterization and
detailed discussions on physical vapor deposition techniques. The
course contents were
extracted from a variety of books and journal papers, with the
principle sources being
“The materials science of thin films, by M.Ohring”
and
“Handbook of thin film technology,
by Maissel and Glang”. The course demographics comprised of
graduate students from a variety of
departments, including Physics, Chemistry and Electrical Engineering.
2.
Optics and wave physics laboratory
(Phy 316, Fall
02-06, Enrollment: 10-14 students, Rating: 8.6/10)
The
primary focus of this undergraduate laboratory course is to perform
experiments on refraction,
interference, diffraction, polarization, and coherent properties of
electromagnetic waves. I have
typically taught this course by including an intense 1-hour lecture,
prior to each afternoons laboratory work, discussing the fundamental
properties of
light in context to the experiments. These lectures also included
detailed mathematical
discussions on error analysis error
propagation, fourier transforms and Fresnel/Fraunhofer diffraction.
This course provides the first
and thorough grounding in the science of error analysis and
propagation. The primary sources
for my lecture notes were “Optics by E.Hecht” and
“Error analysis by Bevington”. I have also
been involved in two major changes to this laboratory course.
3. Introduction to solid state physics (Phy 472, Sp 03-06 Enrollment: 7-13 students, Rating: 5.5/7)
The primary
focus of this
course, which typically contains a good mix of undergraduate and
graduate students (from various fields) is to provide a solid grounding
in important concepts of solid state physics, including crystal
symmetry and structures, binding energies and their role on determining
structure, x-ray diffraction, phonons, free electron theory of metals,
fermi surfaces and band theory. My primary sources for lecture contents
have been “Introduction to solid state physics by
Kittel”,
“Solid state physics by Ashcroft and Mermin”,
“Crystallography for solid state physics by Verma and
Srivastava” and “X-ray diffraction by
Warren”. I have
also used numerous excellent web-based resources that provide java
applets that can visually explain several important concepts, like the
nature of oscillations in optical and acoustic phonons.
4. Physical measurements laboratory
(Phy 322, Sp 06, Enrollment: 20 students, Rating: 5.8/7) This
laboratory course is
required of all Physics majors and focuses on experiments in
classical and modern physics, the use of computers in experiment
control, data acquisition and analysis and in practice of written and
oral reporting of results.
5. Introduction to nanotechnology
(MAE 163, Fall 05, Enrollment: 7 students, Guest Instructor) As a guest
instructor for this
first offering of an undergraduate nanotechnology course I gave 3
lectures on the topic of Functional nanostructures. This course is part
of the nanotechnology minor offered jointly by the Mechanical and
Aerospace Eng. Department with the Environmental Eng. program at W.U.
The aim of this course was to introduce to students the
general
meaning, terminology and ideas behind nanotechnology and its potential
applications in various industries through introductory-level material.
The course was designed for students with background in general
physics, chemistry and biology.