FY542: Experimental physics and semiconductors

Academic preconditions. Students taking the course are expected to:

• Have knowledge of elementary mechanics, electromagnetism, thermodynamics and quantum mechanics,
• Have knowledge of calculus including ordinary and partial differential equations and elementary concepts in statistics. 
• Posses fundamental skills in the computational tool MATLAB.

• skills to set up theoretical models to describe physical phenomena
• competences to design physical experiments that aim to test the validity of theoretical models
• theoretical knowledge on the description of interfacial tension and Brownian motion.
• theoretical knowledge on the properties of semiconductors and devices
• competences to design and perform physical experiments and make data analysis and reporting this 
• research-based knowledge on experimental methods in physics.

Applications:

An understanding of interfacial tension and Brownian motion are essential skills for participating in the technological development of soft materials, such as drug delivery systems and novel food types. Understanding the physics of semiconductors is vital for the progress in developing energy efficient electronic devices like computer chips and light emitting diodes (LED) as well as for the development of improved solar cells.

• Describe the design and construction of experiments in the course.
• Describe the underlying theory of experiments in the course.
• Perform derivations of theoretical models of relevance for the experiments.
• Perform experiments in the laboratory and assess the suitability of own results with respect to data analysis.
• Understand the physics of interfacial tension including the equations that govern the shape of a pendant drop and the associated numerical solution.
• Understand the physical description of Brownian motion as an example of a physical system displaying stochastic dynamics.    
• Understand the physics of semiconductors including the application of quantum mechanics, doping and Fermi-Dirac statistics to explain the mechanisms behind semiconductor devices. 
• Apply the theory to make quantitative calculations of the conductance and the performance of diodes, light emitting diodes (LED), the bipolar transistor and solar cells.
• Perform a quantitative analysis of experimental data including the use of computational and statistical methods where this is relevant.
• Derive conclusions from the analysis of the data.
• Describe the experiments and results in the form of a written report.

1. Drop shape mechanics
2. Brownian motion 
3. Semiconductor devices:

• Doped semiconductors
• Diode and the light emitting diode (LED)
• Bipolar transistor
• The solar cell

The experiments are performed in groups of 2-3 students. As introduction to the experiments, the central concepts, methods and theory is introduced and the student develops the formulas which validity shall be examined in the experiments.

At the faculty of science, teaching is organized after the three-phase model ie. intro, training and study phase. To enable students to meet the requirements of the course, the teaching is distributed between introductory lectures, problem solving exercises and laboratory work.  

• Intro phase  (Lectures) - hours: 12
• Training phase: hours: 22, including 2 hours tutorials and 20 hours laboratory
  

Activities i the study phase:

• Answer the theoretical problems  
  
• Preparation for the construction of the experiments.
• Analysis of experimental data
• Writing of reports
• Preparation for the oral exam