MODERN PHYSICS LABORATORY
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2022/2023
- Teacher
- GIUSEPPE CIULLO
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Secondo Semestre
- SSD
- FIS/01
Training objectives
- The name modern physics is attributed to the scientific revolution which start at the end of XIX century and was completed at the beginning of XX century.
The Modern Physic Laboratory Course is focusing on this revolution, which deal with the quantization theories: the quantized elementary charge, the quantization in the electron interaction with matter, the quantization of the energy of the light, the quantization of the angular momentum, and the duality of wave-corpuscular description,.
The course is actually a sequence of experiments designed to study the properties of electrons, photons, electron-photon interactions, atoms, and the electron-matter interactions.
The fundamental questions faced from the end of 1800 and the beginning of 1900, changed the paradigm of the physics science towards the formulation of quantum physics.
During this course, there will be many opportunities to perform fundamental and determinant experiments and gain experience with a variety of experimental techniques. The student will perform the analysis and the description of experimental data, sinthesised in lab reports on the experimental work performed. Prerequisites
- Statistics, differential and integral calculus, classical and modern physics.
Course programme
- The course can be presented in the following sections, but many experiments can be interpreted by models and theories which cover transversely the different sections, and some experiment contains also transversely arguments or results.
Elementary particles (10 h)
• The discharge in gases and the evidence and behaviour of positive and negative charged particles.
• Mass spectrometry and the e/m ratio of charged elementary particle.
• The Millikan experiment and its empirical correction to the Stokes Law.
• Electrons in solids, metals, semiconductors and the Hall effect.
The birth of the Quantum Physics (10 h)
• Specific heat theory and black body behavior: the Planck description.
• Photo-electric effect and the confirmation of Planck constant concept and value.
• The thermo-ionic effect and the energy of emitted electrons, the Schottky effect.
• Photo-electricity: Lenard experiment on photo-emission from metals, the Millikan experiments on the velocity of photo-emitted particles, the photo-electric theory, the surface effect on photo-emission. The photo-electric effect in metalloids. Photo-conductivity and photo-emissivity.
• Electrons in superconductors.
Atomic Spectra ( 10 h)
• The Hydrogen Spectrum, the Rydberg constant and the Bohr’s radius.
• The sodium and mercury spectra: selection rules and fine structure, the electron-electron coupling.
• The Zeeman effects: Bohr's atomic model, Quantisation of energy levels, Electron spin, Bohr's magneton.
• Magnetic Resonance experiments: electron spin resonance and the measurements of
X ray and their properties (12 h)
• The fine structure of atoms observed in X-Ray spectra.
• The K line and N number relation in atoms: Moseley law.
• X-Ray spectra.
• Absorption of X-Ray
• The Compton effect (the particle behavior of X-Ray)
• Diffraction, reflection and interference of X-Ray (the wave behavior of X-Ray)
• Cristal structure. The Laue interpretation of diffraction from scattering centers. The Bragg interpretation of X-Ray reflession from crystalline plane. Fourier Analysis of X-Ray spectra
Wave Mechanics (6 h)
• Wavelength of electrons.
• The scattering of electron in gas. The anelastic scattering between electrons and atoms. The kinetic energy of the electrons, a particle properties, is absorbed in a quantized way from atoms: Frank-Hertz experiment on Neon and Mercury.
Radioactivity and Scattering (6 h)
• The radioactivity: beta-, alpha- and gamma-Ray. The different energy spectra and the mandatory “motivation” of the neutrino for the explanation of beta decay.
• The alpha particle as a tool for the investigation of atomic model: the Rutherford experiment. Didactic methods
- The lessons, for each experimental situation to be faced, are based on theoretical descriptions or reminders, highlighting the crisis of classical physics.
The laboratory activity, which also includes a description of the tools and techniques used, will be decisive in the confutation or verification of models.
The laboratory sessions include the data analysis and the preparation of reports, in the form of a paper publication. Learning assessment procedures
- The preparation of the students will be tested by two examinations one practical/written and one oral.
In the practical/written test the student has to perform an experiment, collect data, analyze them and write a report, in a form of scientific journal paper.
In the oral test the student will discuss his practical/written test in the panorama of the theoretical and technical topics of the course. Reference texts
- • Alonso-Finn Fundamental Physics University Physics III Quantum and statistical Physics (Addison-Wesley 1968 USA)
• M. Born Atomic Physics (Dover Publication Inc., 1989, New York).
• A. C. Melissinos, J. Napolitano Experiments in Modern Physics (Academic Press, 2003, San Diego USA)
• A. Rotondi, P. Pedroni, A. Pievatolo Probabilità, Statistica e Simulazione (Springer-Verlag, 2012, Milano) or F. James Statistical Methods in Experimental Physics (World Scientific, 2006, Singapore)
• S. Tolanski Introduction to atomic physics (Longmans Londra 1963).
• Manuals of the experimental apparatuses and experiment descriptions provided by the teacher.
