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: kloesgen@ifk.sdu.dk

Additional teachers
per@ifk.sdu.dk

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

Prerequisites:
None

Academic preconditions:
Knowledge of the substance from the courses Electromagnetism I (FY 503) and Thermal Physics (FY509).

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

Expected learning outcome
At course completion the 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.
Ultrahighvacuum (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 include electron microscopes, electron spectrometers, mass spectrometers, scanning-probe instruments (STM, AFM) and electron diffraction equipment for diffraction at low electron energies. There is an introduction to modern techniques of investigations of the formation of thin organic films by selfaggregation 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, AFM, DSC and FCS.

Course format:
The course starts immediately with activities in the laboratories by the participants and contains three 10-hour experimental projects done in 3-person teams in three sessions of approx. 3 hours each.
The laboratory instructions include literature and references for the exercises, which are followed by a discussion session, arranged between the exercises as needed (about 1 hour per. exercise).

By the end of each exercise, a report is submitted per team.
You can group the topics of the exercises as follows:
1. Electron spectroscopy and electron microscopy.
2. Studies of lipid layers: phase transitions in liquid - solid / mixtures (Langmuir Blodgett technology and microcalorimetry).

Abbreviations:
STM: Scanning Tunneling Microscopy.
AFM: Atomic attraction microscopy.
TPD: temperature programmed desorption.
FCS: Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy.
DSC: Differential Scanning Calorimetry.


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:
The course is completed with an oral examination based on the report which has been prepared during the course, internal censorship, graded according to the 7-point grading scale, At the examination each candidate present one of the lab exercises, which have been carried out (decided by lot), and the examination will relate to this presentation well as tp the areas covered by the remaining lab exerises. Reexamination after 2nd. quater (Does not require new experiments)
The mode of exam at the reexamination may differ from the mode of exam at the ordinary exam Reexam after 2nd quarter. 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.