1 - 10 of 59 results for: APPPHYS

Preference to freshmen. The physics of lasers and their light. Computer applets and hands-on investigations. Historical development of ideas about light: electromagnetic waves; particles; special relativity; quantum theory; and the laser. Properties of laser light: wavelength and frequency; coherence; polarization; interference; diffraction; and linear and nonlinear optics. Lasers and applications from Schawlow and Townes to Linac Coherent Light Source. Prerequisites: high school physics and calculus.

Preference to freshmen. Topics include: introduction to quantum mechanics and the behavior of electrons in solids; semiconductor devices; superconductors; magnetic materials used for applications and data storage; and aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Prerequisite: high school physics.

Preference to freshmen. Exploration via case studies how functional materials have been developed and incorporated into modern devices. Particular emphasis on magnetic and dielectric materials and devices. Recommended: high school physics course including electricity and magnetism.

Preference to sophomores. Topics include: current and future applications of nanotechnology, nanofabrication tools, nanoscale characterization and manipulation tools, scanning probe microscopy (SPM), Stanford nanotechnology research examples, hands-on activities, research lab tours. Prerequisite: high school physics.

Preference to freshmen. Choices for meeting the future energy needs of the U.S. and the world. Basic physics of energy sources, technologies that might be employed, and related public policy issues. Trade-offs and societal impacts of different energy sources. Policy options for making rational choices for a sustainable world energy economy.

For advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students. Quantitative models used in molecular biophysics. The relation of structure to function. Chemical equilibria, cooperativity, and control: elementary statistical mechanics, affinity plots, allostery, models of hemoglobin-oxygen binding, bacterial chemotaxis. Macromolecular conformations: polymer chain models, protein folding, taxonomy of globular proteins, general principles of sequence selection. Chemical kinetics. Multiple barriers: CO-myoglobin kinetics, ion diffusion through channels and ion selectivity, spectroscopy of ion channels-acetylcholine receptor. Supramolecular kinetics: conversion of chemical energy to mechanical force, myosin and kinesin, actin polymers. Nerve impulse propagation: membrane potentials, voltage sensitive ion gates, Hodgkin-Huxley equations, propagation of the nerve impulse.

Applied Physics Core course appropriate for graduate students and advanced undergraduate students with prior knowledge of elementary quantum mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and special relativity. Interaction of electrons with intense electromagnetic fields from microwaves to x- ray, including electron accelerators, x-ray lasers and synchrotron light sources, attosecond laser-atom interactions, and x-ray matter interactions. Mechanisms of radiation, free-electron lasing, and advanced techniques for generating ultrashort brilliant pulses. Characterization of electronic properties of advanced materials, prospects for single-molecule structure determination using x-ray lasers, and imaging attosecond molecular dynamics.

Applied Physics Core course appropriate for graduate students and advanced undergraduate students with prior knowledge of elementary quantum mechanics, basic probability, and linear algebra. Quantum probability as a generalization of classical probability theory, with implications for information theory and computer science. Generalized quantum measurement theory, conditional expectation, and quantum noise theory with an emphasis on communications and precision measurements. Classical versus quantum correlations, entanglement and Bell¿s theorem. Introduction to quantum information processing including algorithms, error correction and communication protocols.

Applied Physics Core course appropriate for graduate students and advanced undergraduate students with prior knowledge of elementary quantum mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and ordinary differential equations. Structure of single- and multi-electron atoms; electron correlation, atom-photon and atom-atom entanglement; fundamentals of laser spectroscopy and coherent control. Phenomenology and quantitative modeling of atoms in strong fields, with modern applications. Introduction to quantum optical theory of atom-photon interactions, including quantum trajectory theory.