In each lab section on tuesdays, you will perform an experiment to demonstrate the class topics. The lab for each week will be posted on the syllabus. The writeups may be found below. Read, understand, and do the prep exercises for each lab before class. You will be working on your own for most labs. You will keep a record of your experiments in a lab notebook and that notebook will be graded. Excepting a lab or two at the end of the semester, there are no lab reports. Your observations, data, data analysis and conclusions must be documented in your lab notebooks. Follow these logbook guidelines.

Many of these labs came from P360. Dont worry if the lab# does not correspond with the order in which we are doing them. The title specifies the lab, not the number.

• Weeks 1,2: no labs
• Week 3:
  • Index of refraction of objects with flat surfaces
  • Supplementary notes (for "Index of refraction" lab).
• Week 4: Imaging with simple lenses
• Week 5:
  • Reflection, Fresnel equations
  • Supplementary notes (for "Reflection, Fresnel equations" lab).
• Week 6: Spherical aberration
• Week 7:
  • Magnifier, Microscope, Telescope
  • Supplementary notes (for "Magnifier, Microscope, Telescope" lab).
• Week 8: Linear polarization
• Week 9: Circular polarization
• Week 10:
  • Exploration of interference
  • Supplementary notes (for "Exploration of Interference" lab)
• Week 11: Two-Slit Interference
• Week 12: Diffraction
• Weeks 13-15: "Final Project"
  During the last 3 weeks of class, during tues lab period, you will work on a final project. This will be an more challenging and lengthy experiment. It will also be (somewhat) of you own choosing and more self-directed. You will keep good notes in your logbook and write a 5-10page report. Here are some suggestions for experiments/measurements to do:
  1. Measurement of index for refraction of materials for the EDM experiment. Will use the 60deg prism technique with the optical spectrometer from the p309 lab. These writeups may be helpful in this project.
     • Index of refraction of objects with flat surfaces
     • Spectrometer This allows for a better measurement of the refraction angle of a prism.
  2. Investigation of Laser diode
     • The Laser diode . Writeup from UColorado (?)
     • Semiconductor diode lasers Writeup from UNebraska
  3. Michelson Interferometery.
  4. Spectroscopy with the USB2000 Use the USB2000 spectrometer to collect florescence data with a computer interface. Do the measurements in this writeup or pursue some other ideas.
  5. Refraction and Dispersion with an Abbe Refractometer The spectrometer is part of the p309 equipment. I have some liquid scintillator to characterize.
  6. Measurement of index for refraction of materials for the EDM experiment. Will use the 60deg prism technique with the optical spectrometer from the p309 lab.
  7. Debye-Sears effect. A p309 lab.
  8. Fabry-Perot spectroscopy. A p451 lab.
  9. Faraday effect. A p451 lab.

• logbook guidelines . Use these to keep a good logbook.
• Notes on experimental errors . From HO Meyer. Short document explaining the basics of error analysis.
• chisquare example spreadsheet . Excel file. Example of how to calculate chisquare with a small dataset. Recall that the excel addin "solver" can be used to find parameters that minimize chi2.