Intermediate Experimental Methods	PHYS 301 Course schedule
Primary space for lab engagement: CNS, room E009 Additional opportunities in rooms WN010 and WN007	Gabe Spalding Office Hours (in CNS room C006B): Monday: 2:00 - 3:50PM Tuesday: 4:00 - 4:50PM Friday: 2:00 - 3:50PM ...or by scheduling time via my public calendar ...or by posting (even anonymously, at any hour) to our Class Discussion Page on Piazza

Course Description:

This is a methods course intended to prepare students for the many other experimental opportunities offered at IWU. Experience has shown that such methods courses greatly was subsequent efforts. This course offers a broad survey of experimental methods in physics build around several labs.

Work will naturally include exercise aimed at review of theoretical topics, including Electricity & Magnetism, Relativity; Nuclear Physics; the experimental basis of Quantum Mechanics; wave-particle duality; Schrödinger's equation and solutions; time dependence of quantum states; Many-Body/Statistical/Thermal Physics.

Expenses:

• John Essick, Hands-On Introduction to LabVIEW for Scientists and Engineers. You may either purchase a (potentially used) copy of the 4th Edition, or make a 180-day rental.
• The student version of LabVIEW is a worthwhile investment, as it will be used in many subsequent courses, research projects, internships, and some job opportunities.
• A pocket calculator will be needed for exams, but in many situations you would much be better served by using the Wolfram|Alpha app, on your phone.

Add to your resume:

• Hands-on instructional lab coursework in modern physics and basic electronics, including bipolar and field effect transistors (including power transistors), the golden rules for operational amplifier circuit design, voltage reference chips, programmable power supplies, data acquisition systems (DAQs) and high-speed digitizers, aliasing, noise sources, noise floor measurement, Fourier methods, autocorrelation, signal averaging, microcontrollers, basic test & measurement instrumentation, including digital oscilloscopes and triggering, arbitrary waveform generators, pattern generators, network analyzers (Bode plots, etc.), spectrum analyzers (leakage, windowing, artifacts, etc.) loading, impedance matching, digital I/O.
• Programmatic control of Data Acquisition & Instrumentation, using LabVIEW to communicate across multiple bus architectures
• Experience with a range of sensors/transducers
• Consideration of thermal measurement, heat sinking and thermal management, and control issues, including PID control
• Consideration of the frequency response of detectors (e.g., slow bolometers with flat, broadband response, vs. fast, low-capacitance photodiodes, and their temporal response functions; the "dead time" associated with the RC time constant of avalanche quenching, etc.) and the temporal response of instruments (e.g., the noise-filtering stability of DC voltmeters vs. the rapid response of high-speed digitizers and oscilloscopes)
• Experience with avalanche detectors, capable of single-quanta sensitivity, with introduction to issues of quantum efficiency, discrimination and digitization, counting statistics, transmission line impedance, measurement system characteristics, and other factors impacting timing resolution, as a prequel to coincidence detection for studies of single-photon quantum mechanics
• Data analysis, using Igor Pro
• Computational modeling of physical systems, using Mathematica
• Analytical methods of Physics & Engineering (calculus, ordinary and partial differential equations, wave equations, separation of variables, Fourier methods, etc.)

Course Organization:

- Each week, while there will be 2.5 hours of scheduled time where we collectively meet in the lab, those meetings are to be supplemented by around three hours per week of additional time spent in the lab. Of course, you will also have to devote time to grappling with readings and exercises (including lab exercises, pen and paper exercises, and computer exercises) outside of these periods spent in the lab itself. The IWU Catalog states that, "Ideally, all courses will make approximately the same total demands upon a student’s time: ten to twelve hours per week per course (including scheduled class meeting time needed to complete all assignments)." To support you during those times, we remain available to one another via our online course discussion page

- In lab, we require argumentative writing (and guided revision), in a lab notebook, as a means of promoting habits of mind and work that will serve you well in future work, both on campus and beyond. Use a ruled lab notebook with sewn-in pages, with all entries made in ink. As you plan/review your lab notebook, keep in mind the following questions (which I will also ask, as I grade them, every Saturday morning, at 10:30 am):

• How much have you written?
• To what extent have you engaged in modeling (i.e., thinking about) the physical phenomena under study? Have you made clear predictions, at least in extreme (limiting) cases?
• To what extent have you engaged in modeling (i.e., thinking about) the measurement chain used to study those phenomena? Have you considered system limits?
• To what extent have you considered the relevant statistics and uncertainties?
• To what extent have you discussed the models you've applied to your (plotted) data, and the range over which that model is applied (or is applicable)?
• To what extent have you discussed the degree to which your data supports (or fails to support) the model(s) applied?
• To what extent have you discussed "other influences" that could skew your results (by how much, in what direction, etc.)?
• To what extent have you discussed possible improvements to or extensions of your experiment? (And have you implemented any?)

Habits of Mind & Work:

• Seek clarity by considering extreme limits
• Practice the art of returning the conversation to fundamental principles
• Always seek creative insights
• Regularly seek out and read articles on cutting-edge research efforts, keeping track of those sparking my interest (~ 60 per term), and enter into conversation about these projects
• Maintain clear records of work processes

- Clearly, maintaining a lab notebook involves a kind of writing that is closely tied to the scientific method, but that is not the only kind of writing involved in this course. After you have assembled a significant annotated bibliography (your "Articles of Interest Log"), you will engage in a series of exercises aimed at fleshing out your interests (addressing what it is about particular projects that causes them to be of interest to you, and to the broader world), at the same time refining your oral and written communication skills. The kinds of writing involved here will lead towards letters that you will send to top researchers working on the particular cutting-edge projects you care about most.

- Some of our time together will be devoted to discussion of various assignments or readings. At this time students may be asked to present analytical methods at the board, or to provide qualitative/conceptual interpretations, or to try to provide context as to the importance / role of some particular topic or project.

- Written assignments, other than the lab notebooks, must be turned at the start of class on the day due.

- Matters of Honor - The instructor values our student honor code for the integrity it fosters and the pedagogical flexibility it affords. The important guiding principle of academic honesty is that you must never represent the work of others as your own. Just copying someone else's work is clearly a representation of another's work as your own, and is a violation of the community. The following guidelines should govern your behavior in the course; please request clarification if you find yourself in any doubtful situations.

• Students may consult with one another (or anyone else) concerning the computer assignments, but each student must have written his or her own programs and done all assigned runs.
• Homework assignments may be discussed via our online class discussion page. You may also consult published sources.

Recognize that most opportunity is beyond the range of common experience. In other words, you don't yet know MOST of the things that the world has to offer you! So, while celebrating your current interests, in this course we also celebrate continued exploration of the world of ideas, and the many interconnections you will discover: towards this end, you will regularly peruse sites highlighting cutting-edge projects, with the aim of finding (4) articles per week that describe "cool projects." Use Zotero bibliographic software to record (with the simple click of a button) these into your own personal "Articles of Interest Log." It will then be super easy to annotate your bibliography and, periodically, to review your list and to share some of the coolest entries with one of our Facebook Groups:

• IWU IEEE student chapter: interested in Engineering (generally speaking)
• IWU SPIE Facebook Group: interested in Optics & Photonics, Laser Physics, & Imaging Science
• Society of Physics Students: our most general, related student group (interested in everything)

This course will expose you to possible new interests via ongoing exploration of cutting-edge projects and, critically, we will enter into (both oral and written) conversation about those projects that you identify as "cool."

Field trips are possible, if there is sufficient clamoring for them, to nearby facilities of relevance, such as the Ameren Microgrid facility that integrates (intermittent) renewable energy sources including wind and solar with backup strategies such as natural gas turbines and battery-based storage facilities, or the Ecology Action Center, Rivian Automotive, AutonomouStuff, Caterpillar, G3 Machining, the Bridgestone tire manufacturing facility, the State Farm Crash Lab, CAMtek, Inc., the Department of Energy's Argonne National Lab, FermiLab, or on-campus research or fabrication facilities.

Grading procedures: