PHY 312 - Advanced Laboratory, 3 credit hours

Prerequisite(s): PHY 131, PHY 132 or PHY 145L, PHY 146L, or instructor’s permission
A laboratory course in which independent experiments of advanced level in physics and engineering are designed, performed and analyzed by the student, acting in consultation with the instructor. Results are expected to be obtained with sufficient care and detail to make the results comparable to quality research results. Typically, an independently designed project with an oral and/or a poster presentation is expected. PHY 312 may be repeated if different experiments are carried out each time it is taken. The current advanced lab topics offered are:

Advanced Labs

Optics and Holography: Review of lenses, mirrors, interference, diffraction, and their applications: Michelson and Mach-Zehder interferometers, Reflection and transmission holography.
Modern Physics: A lab designed primarily around the important physics experiments of the last century: e/m ratio of the electron, photo-electric effect, Franck-Hertz effect, gamma ray spectroscopy, Zeeman effect, scanning tunneling microscope, hydrogen/deuterium spectrum, semiconductors.
Computational Physics: A lab helping students write their own programs to solve problems in physics by numerical methods.
Special Lab Topics: With prior permission of the instructor, experiments, projects, or research of particular interest to the student may be arranged.