Modern Physics Teaching Fall2011

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Modern Physics

Instructor: Dr. [Sabieh Anwar] Office hours: Monday, (11:15 am to 1:30 pm).

Teaching Fellows: [Mudassir Moosa] Office hours: Tuesday, Thursday (2:00 pm to 4:00 pm) and [Unab Javed] Office hours: Tuesday, Thursday (3:15 pm to 5:15 pm)

Textbooks: Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei and Particles by R. Eisberg and R. Resnick. (The book is available in the local market as a low priced edition.); Modern Physics by R.A. Serway, C.J. Moses and C.A. Moyer (also available in low priced edition.)

Image:lysozyme.jpg

Click here for the course outline.

Here is the weblink for the same course I taught in Fall 2009. You will find homeworks, exams and their solutions from the 2009 offering of this course here, all in a consolidated pdf. Errors and omissions are expected.

Week 1

  • The most important experiment in physics: double slit interference
  • Blackbody radiation
  • Stefan's and Wien's displacement law
  • Rayleigh-Jeans formula

What is the most important experiment in physics: Part A | Part B | Part C

Week 2

  • Plank's quantum hypothesis
  • Radiation as photon gas
  • The photoelectric effect


Blackbody radiation: Part A | Part B | Part C
Photoelectric effect

Homework No. 1
Blackbody radiation and photoelectric effect

Week 3

PET Scan of the brain of a healthy older person(left) and that of a person suffering from Alzheimer's disease (right). Lighter regions contains higher concentrations of radioactive glucose, indicating higher metabolism rates and therefore increased brain activities.
PET Scan of the brain of a healthy older person(left) and that of a person suffering from Alzheimer's disease (right). Lighter regions contains higher concentrations of radioactive glucose, indicating higher metabolism rates and therefore increased brain activities.

  • Compton scattering
  • A glimpse into the history of science at the turn of the nineteenth century
  • Investigating the particle nature of matter: Faraday's electrolysis, Thomson's discovery of the electron and determination of its e/m, Rutherford's discovery of the nucleus
  • Recitation session Sept. 30, 2011.

Compton scattering: Part A | Part B
Particle nature of matter, Rutherford scattering: Part A | Part B|Part C

Homework No. 2
Compton scattering

Week 4

  • Bohr's quantization
  • Lasers
  • Introduction to matter waves and wave particle duality

Bohr's quantization
Laser fundamentals
Beats

Week 5

  • Phase and group velocities
  • Normal, anomalous dispersion | Java applets demonstrating dispersion
  • Fourier integrals
  • Constructing wave packets (corresponding to matter waves)
  • Uncertainty principle

Phase and group velocity, dispersion
Constructing packets of matter waves
Uncertainty principle

Homework No. 3
Bohr's model and laser fundamentals

Quiz No. 1
Paper A, Paper B

Week 6

  • Uncertainty principle Continued
  • Applications of uncertainty principle
  • Wave equations in classical and quantum mechanics
  • Schrodinger wave equation and its solution

Applications of uncertainty principle
Wave equations in classical and quantum mechanics
Schrodinger wave equation: Part A | Part B

Quiz No. 2
Uncertainty principle

Week 7

  • Wavefunction and its probabilistic interpretation
  • Particle in a finite well
  • Infinite square well and its applications
  • Finite well and its application
  • Barrier potential and quantum tunneling
  • Recitation session Oct. 28, 2011.

Particle in a box
Finite well and quantum tunneling

Homework No. 4
Schrodinger wave equation and potential wells

Week 8

Quantum tunneling may aid the quest for accurate Low-Cost DNA sequencing. A gold probe, outfitted with a dangling nucleotide approaches its complementary base, protruding upward from a monolayer. A set point current is established for the tunnel junction as the bases self-assemble. As the electrode is slowly withdrawn, the drop in tunneling current is recorded. Examining the curve of current vs. distance allows the identification of A-T base pairs, which may be distinguished from more strongly bonded C-G pairs -- cemented by 3 rather than 2 hydrogen bonds. Credit: Biodesign Institute at ASU
Quantum tunneling may aid the quest for accurate Low-Cost DNA sequencing. A gold probe, outfitted with a dangling nucleotide approaches its complementary base, protruding upward from a monolayer. A set point current is established for the tunnel junction as the bases self-assemble. As the electrode is slowly withdrawn, the drop in tunneling current is recorded. Examining the curve of current vs. distance allows the identification of A-T base pairs, which may be distinguished from more strongly bonded C-G pairs -- cemented by 3 rather than 2 hydrogen bonds. Credit: Biodesign Institute at ASU


Quantum tunneling revisited
Radioactive decay: a quantum tunneling problem
Problem solving session on quantum tunneling

Week 9

Week 10

Review session I
Review session II

Midterm examanination
Question paper
Solution set for the midterm exam

Week 11

Three dimensional infinite well and degeneracy
Towards the hydrogen atom

Week 12

Atomic orbitals (angular part)
Radial probability density

Homework No. 5
Hydrogen Atom

Week 12

Stern-Gerlach Experiment
Applications of the spin phenomena and interpreting results from the Stern-Gerlach experiment

Quiz No. 3
Hydrogen atoms

Week 13

Magnetic resonance
Introduction to energy bands
Conduction mechanisms; meaning of the Pauli exclusion principle

Week 14 and 15

  • Semiconductors: energy bands, intrinsic and extrinsic
  • Working of the pn junction
  • Calculating Fermi energies, density of states
  • Fermi-Dirac distribution
  • Here is some material that you must read on your own; it will help you understand semiconductors better and will enable you to solve HW 6 given below. The excerpt is from Ch 43 of "Physics for Scientists and Engineers" by Fishbane, Thornton and Gasiorowicz.
  • Reading material on the Physics of Stars, Ch. 44, Physics by Gettys, Keller and Stoves.
  • Recitation session December 23, 2011, calculations related to the Fermi energy and density of states.
  • Some review problems, based on energy bands and star physics. These problems will be reviewed by Mr. Muddassir Moosa on Thursday, 29 December 2011

Semiconductors
Foundational treatment of the PN junction, Invited Lecture by Professor Asad Abidi

 Calculating the Fermi energy

 From diodes to stars (a primer on star physics)

Homework No. 6
Semiconductors

Final Exam

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