EE 342/PHY 342 NANOSCIENCE LABORATORY SYLLABUS, FALL 2008

 

 

REGISTRATION:  Students must register for the labs separately from the lectures.

 

COURSE PACK: The students are required to purchase a “Course Pack” from Great Lakes Graphics and Printing located at the UB Commons.  The handouts for all the experiments are contained in the Course Pack.

 

GOALS: The goal of the lab is to explore the experimental basis of nanotechnology and nanoelectronics.

 

 

GRADING/EVALUATION: 75 % of the Lab Grade is determined from your lab reports.  The remaining 25 % of your grade will be determined by a comprehensive final examination. A grading curve will be used to determine the Lab Grade.

 

 

FINAL EXAM:  The final exam will contain two types of questions. The first type will be very similar to those found in the manual for experiments.  In the second type of questions student will be provided by a set of data and will be asked to carry out simple analysis based on what he/she has learned in the lab.

 

 

LAB REPORTS: Reports are due at the next regular session after each completed experiment.  When a student hands in his/her report, the TA signs on the last page of the student’s Lab Notebook. This entry serves as a receipt for the student. Lab reports are collected at the beginning of each lab session.  LATE REPORTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.  Students who are late for the laboratory may be asked by the TA to attend the makeup session. You will work with lab partners in taking data, but you must prepare the report by yourself.  The UB rules for Academic Integrity will be enforced.  

See:  http://undergrad-catalog.buffalo.edu/policies/course/integrity.shtml

 and    http://www.ub-judiciary.buffalo.edu/art3a.shtml#integrity.

 

 

PREPARATION FOR THE LABORATORY: Each student MUST read the appropriate handout before coming to lab each week and make an effort to understand the relevant material. Bring your Course Pack to each lab session. 

 

 

CHECKING YOUR PROGRESS: TA will post the grades on the lab webpage for each experiment one week after your report is due.  The first missing report counts as a zero.  Two or more missing reports will result in a failing grade for the course. It is recommended that students check the grades posted by TA to ensure that the report grades were properly recorded.

 

 

LAB NOTEBOOK: Each student is REQUIRED to have a Lab Notebook (#77475 or equivalent quad-ruled 80 pages).  These are available at the local bookstores.  It is mandatory to bring the Lab Notebook to each lab session because all the data is recorded in the Lab Notebook.  In addition, the last page of the notebook is used by the TA to certify that a lab report is handed in.

 

 

DATA COPIES: You will be required to give a copy of some or all of your data to your TA each week. 

 

 

ATTENDANCE/MAKEUPS:  You must attend ALL sessions.  If you have a valid medical or family reason for missing a regular session, notify your TA and arrange for a makeup during the scheduled makeup sessions. There will be two such makeup sessions during the semester.

 

 

HELP: Your TA will have two office hours per week. 

 

 

LAB LOCATION AND TIME:

Location:   Room 117 Bonner Hall, Rooms 306, 336A, 336B, and 336G Fronczak Hall

Time:         Section   L1   - Tue.:  3:30 pm – 6:20 pm

                  Section   L2   - Wed.: 3:00 pm – 5:50 pm

 

 

LAB WEBSITE: The lab website is http://ublearns.buffalo.edu.  All relevant information about the lab will be posted on UBlearns. The students are advised to check the website before each lab session for the last minute announcements. They should also check the website before preparing the lab reports. Hints or questions that must be included in the report will be posted.  

 

 

WEBSITE POSTINGS: Before each experiment make sure that you check the lab website for useful information such as data tables, special instructions, etc. under the heading: “Additional Lab Information”.  For each experiment you are required to download the corresponding blank data tables, print them out, and bring them with you to the lab. 

 

 

EXPERIMENTS:  Nine lab experiments will be carried out by all students. Students will work in groups of two.  Students with disabilities or special requirements (e.g. military service) should inform the TA as early as possible.

 

DISABILITIES: If you have a disability, or should happen to acquire a disability this semester, you may be eligible for individualized services or reasonable accommodations known as academic adjustments to ensure that you have an equal opportunity as other students to access this course.  You may contact Disability Services (25 Capen Hall, (716-645-2608) for their professional review of your access/accommodation needs.  Follow Disability Services' directions for notifying and working with your course instructors. Timely notice that you are a student with a disability in need of academic adjustments is required.

 

 

LAB SCHEDULE FOR EE 342/PHY 342, FALL 2008:

 

During the semester the students will perform a total of nine experiments for this lab course.

 

These experiments are listed below:

 

Experiment FR0: Propagation of Errors

Experiment BN1: Introduction to Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM)

Experiment BN2: Study of the Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite (HOPG) Surface Using STM

Experiment BN3: Introduction to Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)

Experiment BN4: Study of the Morpho Butterfly Wing Structure Using AFM

Experiment FR1: Diffraction of Electrons from Graphite

Experiment FR2: Diffraction of Light by a Double Slit - One Photon at a Time

Experiment FR3: Optical Absorption by CdSe Nanocrystals

Experiment FR4: Photoluminescence from InP Quantum Dots (QDs)

 

Note:  The prefix “BN” (“FR”) indicates the experiment will be done in Bonner (Fronczak) Hall.  

 

A short description of the experiments is given below:

 

Experiment FR0: Propagation of Errors

In this experiment students will explore how the uncertainty σx of parameter x determines the uncertainty σy of parameter y if we know the dependence of y on x (we assume that we know the function y(x)). The second topic of this lab examines how the uncertainty σy of parameter y that is determined by N parameters x1, x2, …, xN (we assume that we know the function y(x1, x2, …, xN )) depends on the uncertainties σx1,  σx2, …, σxN  of the parameters x1, x2, …, xN.  These concepts are demonstrated in a simple optical experiment that involves a lens whose focal length f will be determined by measuring the object-lens distance o and the image-lens distance i.

 

Experiment BN1: Introduction to Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM)

In this experiment students will learn: 1) basic principles of operation of the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) and 2) user-oriented STM software. Using this knowledge they will obtain images of (111) Au film surface.

 

Experiment BN2: Study of the Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite (HOPG) Surface Using STM

In this experiment students will learn in more details the operation of STM. This experiment will require extensive use of the acquired skills to study on nanoscale level the surface of the highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) sample. They will obtain with the help of STM the images the atomic hexagonal structure of the graphite surface layer and determine the graphite layer lattice constant.

 

Experiment BN3: Introduction to Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)

In this experiment students will learn the basic principles of operation of Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). Using this knowledge they will study the surface of the silicon oxide microstructure. They will obtain with the help of AFM the images of the periodic structure of the holes in the silicon oxide layer, including three-dimensional image of the silicon oxide surface layer, and measure the thickness of the microstructure.

 

Experiment BN4: Study of the Morpho Butterfly Wing Structure Using AFM

In this experiment students will be introduced with the help of AFM to fascinating world of tropical Morpho butterflies. They will study the fine complex structure of the butterfly wings on the nanoscale level. Using the obtained data they will be asked to explain the origin of the brilliant iridescent blue color of the Morpho butterfly wings. 

 

Experiment FR1:  Electron Diffraction

In this experiment electrons are accelerated by a known potential difference, V, applied between the cathode and the anode of a cathode ray tube.  The electron beam is diffracted by a thin polycrystalline graphite sheet. The resulting characteristic ring diffraction pattern is observed on the front face of the tube which is internally covered with a fluorescent coating.  The diffraction data can be analyzed and the lattice parameters of the graphite can be determined. Within this experiment the wave nature of electrons is clearly demonstrated, and the relationship between the electron de Broglie wavelength and the electron momentum is established. The wave character of matter is a fundamental concept in quantum mechanics and this experiment demonstrates it qualitatively and explores it quantitatively at a level suitable for the second- and third-year undergraduate students. 

 

Experiment FR2:  Single Photon Two-Slit Diffraction Experiment

In this experiment the students will first record the interference pattern from two slits using a white light source.   The students will then reduce the source intensity down to 105 photons per second and approach a regime in which the average time between two successive photon arrivals at the detector greatly exceeds the time-of-flight of the photon through the apparatus. Under these “one photon at a time” conditions the diffraction pattern is gradually formed. The light intensity distribution is detected using a photomultiplier tube. This experiment clearly demonstrates the wave-particle duality of light which is a central concept in quantum mechanics.

 

Experiment FR3:  Absorption of Light by CdSe Nanocrystals

In this experiment the students measure the intensity of light transmitted through a solid or liquid solution of crystalline (CdSe) quantum dots (QD) of known average size. The absorption edge due to the fundamental gap is determined from these measurements as a function of QD diameter, and the characteristic blue shift with decreasing QD diameter is clearly demonstrated. This is a simple but quite a dramatic experiment which demonstrates the effect of confinement on the energy states of quantum dots.  It also makes the connection between quantum confinement and the onset wavelength of the widely used glass/CdSe filters.  A quantitative analysis of the onset wavelength slope yields the QD average size.

 

Experiment FR4: Photoluminescence from InP QDs

In this experiment the students record the emission spectra from solutions of InP QDs excited with a UV diode.  This experiment is complementary to the absorption experiment described above (FR3). In addition to the blue shift of the emission spectrum with decreasing QD size the photoluminescence experiment demonstrates the increase of the recombination efficiency as a result of confinement. 

 

Lab Schedule:

 

Week Starts on:

Experiment

Room

Week 1:

No Labs

 

Week 2:

Organizational Meeting

306 Fronczak Hall

Week 3:

Experiment FR0: Propagation of Errors

308 Fronczak Hall

Week 4:

 

 

Week 5:

 

 

Week 6:

 

 

Week 7:

 

 

Week 8:

First Makeup Session

 

Week 9:

 

 

Week 10:

 

 

Week 11:

 

 

Week 12:

 

 

Week 13:

No Labs: Thanksgiving  Break

 

Week 14:

Second Makeup Session

 

Week 15:

Review Session

 

Week 16:

Final Exams

 

 

 

Note 1:  Experiment FR0 (Propagation of Errors) will be performed simultaneously by all students in each section using 8 setups.  For the remaining 8 experiments only one setup will be used. During the semester the students will rotate among these experiments.

 

Note 2: During the Organizational Meeting (Week 2) the students in each section will form groups of two and will be distributed among Experiment BN1 through Experiment FR4.  This schedule will be followed for the remainder of the semester. 

 

 

Group1

Group2

Group3

Group4

Group5

Group6

Group7

Group8

Week  1

No Labs

Week  2

Organizational Meeting

Week  3

Experiment FR0: Propagation of Errors

Week  4

FR 1

FR 2

FR 3

FR 4

BN 1

BN 1

BN 3

BN 3

Week  5

FR 2

FR 3

FR 4

FR 1

BN 2

BN 2

BN 4

BN 4

Week  6

FR 3

FR 4

FR 1

FR 2

BN 3

BN 3

BN 1

BN 1

Week  7

FR 4

FR 1

FR 2

FR 3

BN 4

BN 4

BN 2

BN 2

Week  8

First Makeup Session

Week 9

BN 1

BN 1

BN 3

BN 3

FR 1

FR 2

FR 3

FR 4

Week 10

BN 2

BN 2

BN 4

BN 4

FR 2

FR 3

FR 4

FR 1

Week 11

BN 3

BN 3

BN 1

BN 1

FR 3

FR 4

FR 1

FR 2

Week 12

BN 4

BN 4

BN 2

BN 2

FR 4

FR 1

FR 2

FR 3

Week 13

No Labs: Thanksgiving Day

Week 14

Second Makeup Session

Week 15

Review Session

Week 16

Final Exams