FY804: Experimental surface physics (5 ECTS)

STADS: 07004101

Level
Master's level course

Teaching period
The course is offered in the spring semester.
4th quarter.

Teacher responsible
Email: permorgen@sdu.dk

Additional teachers
kloesgen@memphys.sdu.dk

Timetable
Show entire timetable
Show personal time table for this course.

Prerequisites:
None

Academic preconditions:
Knowledge of the content in the courses Electromagnetism I (FY 503) and Thermal Physics (FY509) is necessary.

Course introduction
Students will get acquainted with advanced experimental methods for studies of the properties of hard (inorganic) and soft (organic) substance surfaces.

Expected learning outcome
Upon completion of this course students are expected to be able to

• Describe the phenomenological background of the techniques used and assess their applications.
• Work with advanced scientific measurement equipment (under supervision), and implement data processing, including being able to optimize and evaluate data quality, and make a discussion of uncertainties in the measurements.
• Comment on important concepts about surface physical and chemical properties, and identify relevant experimental methods for studying them.

Subject overview
The course is an introduction to the use of advanced experimental research equipment for surface studies.


 Ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) equipment is the basis for studies of clean surfaces of solids, their reaction with gases, and of new materials based on growth on surfaces such as thin film coatings and for use in electronic materials, or more complex structures in three dimensions.
Soft materials surface properties include, for example, surface tension.
Instruments for surface physical studies available for this course include electron microscopes and electron spectrometers, and an ion beam facility for bombardment of surfaces with ions.
An introduction is given to modern techniques of investigations of the formation of thin organic films by self aggregation like mono-or bilayer formation of lipids in contact with water. Techniques for this include X-ray and neutron diffraction, neutron reflectrometry, Langmuir-Blodgett technology, DSC (differential scanning calorimetry) and FCS (fluorescence correlation spectroscopy).
Course format:The course activities comprise three 10-hour experimental projects, app. 30 hours in total. Each project is performed in 3-person teams and is divided in three sessions. 
Before the start of the laboratory work, two two-hour lectures are held to present the topics of the course and outlining the experiments. Each session outlines three of the six experiments, to enable the students to make a choice of which experiments they prefer to do. Manuals and supporting information will be available in Blackboard. The laboratory instructions include literature and references for the experimental work, which are followed-up with a discussion session, arranged between the experimental sessions as needed (about 1 hour per experiment).
At the end of each laboratory project, a report is submitted per team. 
You can group the topics of the exercises as follows: 
1. Electron spectroscopy and electron microscopy (3 different experiments). 
2. Studies of lipid layers: phase transitions in liquid - solid / mixtures (Langmuir Blodgett technology and microcalorimetry) (3 different experiments).
Students can freely choose which three experiments they would like to do.

Literature

• G. Barnes & I. Gentle: Interfacial Science, Oxford University Press, 2005.

Syllabus
See syllabus.

Website
This course uses e-learn (blackboard).

Prerequisites for participating in the exam
None

Assessment and marking:
Approximately 10 days before the end of the course, each participant will be given (by random) a subject covered in the course. On the basis of this tpic the students writes a comprehensive report (~15 pages)  which includes own results, scientific literature and answers to specific questions. The report is evaluated with a grade after 7-scale (internal censorship).

Reexamination after 2nd quarter. (Does not require new experiments)
The mode of exam at the reexamination may differ from the mode of exam at the ordinary exam.

Expected working hours
The teaching method is based on three phase model.

Eksaminatorier, efter behov (ca. 3x1 timer).
Laboratorieøvelser, antal timer ca. 30.
Educational activities

Language
This course is taught in English.

Course enrollment
See deadline of enrolment.

Tuition fees for single courses
See fees for single courses.