Main Page/PHYS 4061

PHYS 4061/5061: Experimental Techniques in Laser Physics

Involves a selection of experiments in laser physics, with emphasis on techniques necessary for trapping neutral atoms with lasers. One lecture hour and one tutorial hour and two three hour laboratory sessions per week. Integrated with: GS/PHYS 5061 3.00.

Students taking this course can expect to use state of the art equipment and gain a working knowledge of conventional experimental techniques in atomic physics and laser spectroscopy. This background should be adequate preparation for working in research laboratories in related fields and industry related to photonics.

Prerequisites:

• SC/PHYS 2211 1.00 and SC/PHYS 2212 1.00, or SC/PHYS 2213 3.00
• SC/PHYS 2020 3.00
• SC/PHYS 2060 3.00

Corequisite:

• SC/PHYS 3040 6.00.

Course Director

Matthew George

122 Petrie

mgeorge@yorku.ca

Teaching Assistants

Adam Carew	Kosuke Kato
Petrie	309 PSE

Schedule

Labs	2:30pm - 5:30pm	Mondays and Tuesdays	Petrie 226
Lecture	3:30pm - 4:20pm	Fridays	CB 120
Tutorial	4:30pm - 5:20pm	Fridays	CB 120
Office Hours
Course Director	2:30pm - 3:30pm	Wednesdays	Petrie 122
Teaching Assistants	T.B.D.	Fridays	T.B.D

Consult the Schedule Calendar for detailed information on lab sessions, due dates, and lecture and tutorial dates.

During the first week, the TAs will organize you into group of two, and assign a starting experiment for each group. There will likely be 10 groups, but only 9 experiments, hence each group will have one week off during the term. Each group will start with the assigned experiment and cycle through the remaining experiments sequentially. The order of experiments is given in the lab manual.

Students will complete a common data analysis tutorial (Lab 0) based on Mathematica during the first three sessions and submit a lab report based on the completed tutorial and relevant exercises.

Grades

Lab Reports	65%
Homework	10%
Final Exam	25%

Laser Safety

Each experiment in this course uses a laser. Most of the lasers used are Class 3b. Understanding what this means and how to protect yourself is an important lesson of this course. You will need to review the Laser Safety Tutorial (see the appendix of the lab manual), and during the first week, the TAs will lead a discussion on Laser Safety. A quiz based on the tutorial will be held during the 3rd laboratory session.

Only students who have understood the safety precautions and successfully completed the quiz will be permitted to take the course.

Course Content

Students will be exposed to common a data analysis tutorial (based on Mathematica) during the fIrst two weeks of the term. Subsequently, students will work in groups of two and cycle through 9 experiments related to laser spectroscopy. Since there are 10 groups of two, and only 9 experiments, each group will enjoy one week without performing a laboratory exercise. Note that this does not change the due date for your reports.

Laboratory work will include pre-lab exercises, data analysis, interpretation, and answers to specific questions in the manual. Reports do not require extensive written descriptions. Mathematica should be used for all data analysis.

The laboratory component of the course emphasizes experimental techniques related to laser spectroscopy and hands-on skills.

The lecture component introduces theoretical concepts related to instrumentation such as gas lasers, diode lasers, laser beam propagation, Fabry -Perot resonators, electro-optic modulators, acousto-optic modulators and optical detectors.

The tutorials cover theoretical concepts related to laboratory experiments.

Textbook and References

The principal resource is a comprehensive laboratory manual that can be purchased from the physics department office (Petrie 128).

Abbreviated notes for lectures and tutorials can be obtained from the course web site: http://datamac.phys.yorku.ca/

There is no textbook. Here is a useful list of references.

Lab Reports

The grade for lab reports will be based on attendance and content.

The first lab report is related to the data analysis tutorial that will be completed over three, 3-hour lab sessions. Subsequent experiments will each involve two, 3-hour lab sessions.

The requirements and format for lab reports are clearly specified in the section titled "Format of Lab Reports" in the laboratory manual.

Graduate students are required to complete additional exercises.

Please consult TAs if the requirements are not clear.

The first lab report (on the Mathematica tutorial) requires submission in hardcopy and in electronic format. Part of the grade for this report will depend on the functionality of the Mathematica notebooks that students will submit in electronic form. All other labs require only hard copy submissions.

Due Dates

Pre-lab exercises and lab reports should be submitted to the TAs in PSE 226 by 2:30 PM, at the beginning of lab sessions. Please see specified due dates for lab reports in the Schedule section above.

Lab reports submitted by 4:30 PM on the day after the due date will incur a penalty of 10%. Two days after, a penalty of 25%. Three days or more, a mark of zero will be assigned. Late lab reports can be submitted in the Tuesday lab session, or in Petrie 128.

Exceptions will require the approval of the instructor. Exceptions will be granted only under exceptional circumstances.

TAs will not accept e-mail submission of lab reports.

Graded reports will generally be returned one week after the due date.

Attendance

TAs will record attendance. Students are expected to be present during the entirety of all 3-hour lab sessions or until the laboratory work is completed.

Unless special arrangements are made with the course instructor, students arriving more than 10 minutes after the beginning of a laboratory session will be deemed as being absent.

If a student is absent even for a single lab session or leaves a lab session before the work is completed, the score on the relevant lab report will be zero. If a lab is completed within the 1 st session, TAs can certify that attendance is not required during the 2nd session.

Make-up Labs

Makeup labs are intended to cover situations in which there is equipment malfunction or factors beyond the control of students that prevented the completion of an experiment and in cases where approval from the course instructor is obtained due to medical reasons.

Students missing a lab session due to medical reasons are required to file an attending physician statement with the course instructor (not to be confused with a doctor's note) and demonstrate a convincing reason for absence to schedule a makeup lab. The attending physician's statement can be obtained from the registrar's office.

Students approved for a makeup lab by the course instructor should sign up for a makeup lab with the TAs.

Academic Integrity

Each group is expected to perform the experiments together, with each student understanding everything that happens in the lab. Try to balance the in-lab work load fairly. The data for each experiment can be shared between partners. Students are encouraged to discuss their reports with partners, other students, TAs, and the course director.However, each student is expected to submit their own lab report, which must be completed individually.

COPYING FROM OTHER STUDENTS OR FROM PREVIOUS LAB REPORTS IS A SERIOUS OFFENCE.

Students are urged to visit the Academic Integrity web site at York University (http://www.yorku.ca/tutorial/academic_integrityl) and complete the Academic Integrity Tutorial.

Strategies for PHYS 4061/5061

Like PHYS 2213 3.0, this course meets the defInition of a three-credit lab course in the Faculty of Science. According to the defInition, a one-credit lab course implies three hours of laboratory work per week over the duration of the semester. For PHYS 406115061, six hours of laboratory work per week will constitute the equivalent of two credits. The lecture module (1 lecture per week) will constitute an additional credit.

Since this an upper level course, the requirements will be more intensive compared to introductory courses (PHYS 2213). Therefore, it is particularly important that students adopt suitable strategies that are summarized below.

1. Experiments are designed so that they can be completed within two laboratory sessions. However, efficient utilization of time is a key requirement.
2. Please prepare thoroughly for each lab by completing pre-lab exercises, reviewing tutorials, reading through the manual and becoming familiar with data taking requirements.
3. Do not leave the lab until you understand how the data you have obtained can be used for graphical analysis.
4. At the end of the first lab session for each experiment, all student groups will benefit by discussing the state of the experiment with the TAs and developing suitable plans for the 2nd lab session.

5. Successful completion of data analysis is the key to this course. Mathematica notebooks are provided throughout the lab manual. Students should be able to adapt these to analyze data following the laboratory sessions dedicated to data analysis.

   Students with an understanding of the required graphs should spend no more than 30 minutes attempting to plot the results. If difficulties are encountered, they should immediately attend an office hour scheduled by the TAs. The importance of interaction with the TAs for data analysis cannot be emphasized in stronger terms.

6. Students who review the content of lectures and tutorials on a regular basis and complete homework assignments should find the written exam to be straightforward.