Explore the origin of energy bands in crystals of atoms. The structure of these bands determines how materials conduct electricity.
Experiment with conductivity in metals, plastics and photoconductors. See why metals conduct and plastics don't, and why some materials conduct only when you shine a flashlight on them.
Simulate the original experiment that proved that electrons can behave as waves. Watch electrons diffract off a crystal of atoms, interfering with themselves to create peaks and troughs of probability.
Explore tunneling splitting in double well potentials. This classic problem describes many physical systems, including covalent bonds, Josephson junctions, and two-state systems such as spin 1/2 particles and ammonia molecules.
Create a laser by pumping the chamber with a photon beam. Manage the energy states of the laser's atoms to control its output.
How did scientists figure out the structure of atoms without looking at them? Try out different models by shooting light at the atom. Check how the prediction of the model matches the experimental results.
Surveys modern research topics in physical chemistry. Introduction to four or five research areas of current interest. Topics vary from year to year and may include the following: advanced statistical and quantum mechanics, molecular dynamics, nanostructures and mesoscopic materials, high resolution and ultra fast laser spectroscopy, atmospheric, environmental and surface science, and magnetic resonance. The goal of this course is to illustrate how molecular structure is extracted from a spectrum. In order to achieve this goal it will be necessary to: master the language of spectroscopists; develop facility with quantum mechanical models; predict the relative intensities and selection rules; and learn how to assign spectra.
Parallel treatments of photons, electrons, phonons, and molecules as energy carriers, aiming at a fundamental understanding of descriptive tools for energy and heat transport processes from nanoscale to macroscale. Topics include the energy levels, the statistical behavior and internal energy, energy transport in the forms of waves and particles, scattering and heat generation processes, Boltzmann equation and derivation of classical laws, deviation from classical laws at nanoscale and their appropriate descriptions, with applications in nanotechnology and microtechnology.
Produce light by bombarding atoms with electrons. See how the characteristic spectra of different elements are produced, and configure your own element's energy states to produce light of different colors.
Explore an active area of research in optical physics: producing designer pulse shapes to achieve specific purposes, such as breaking apart a molecule. Carefully create the perfect shaped pulse to break apart a molecule by individually manipulating the colors of light that make up a pulse.
See how light knocks electrons off a metal target, and recreate the experiment that spawned the field of quantum mechanics.
Explore the properties of quantum "particles" bound in potential wells. See how the wave functions and probability densities that describe them evolve (or don't evolve) over time.
Dope the semiconductor to create a diode. Watch the electrons change position and energy.
" The goal of this course is to illustrate the spectroscopy of small molecules in the gas phase: quantum mechanical effective Hamiltonian models for rotational, vibrational, and electronic structure; transition selection rules and relative intensities; diagnostic patterns and experimental methods for the assignment of non-textbook spectra; breakdown of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation (spectroscopic perturbations); the stationary phase approximation; nondegenerate and quasidegenerate perturbation theory (van Vleck transformation); qualitative molecular orbital theory (Walsh diagrams); the notation of atomic and molecular spectroscopy."
