Center for Emerging Energy Sciences
Instruction
Dr Duncan has taught a plethora of classes throughout his career ranging from introductory courses for undergraduates to complex topics for graduate-level courses.
Dr Duncan has taught throughout the physics curriculum, including the introductory sequence of university physics, introduction to special relativity and to quantum physics, graduate condensed matter physics, graduate electromagnetism, interdisciplinary courses in self-organized criticality and in biological physics, and senior laboratory. He led the development of a new core curriculum course called “Chemistry and Physics at the Nanometer-scale”, which he first taught during the Fall Semester, 2006 as part of our new Nanoscience and Microsystems graduate degree program. He has advised and co-advised many post-docs, graduate students, and undergraduate students at the University of New Mexico, Caltech, and Texas Tech University. Many of his former students now hold permanent positions in academia, industry, and in the national laboratories within the United States
In the Fall of 2022 semester, Dr Duncan taught a new graduate-level course on Nanoscience and Quantum Sensing. This special topics course (5300-019) was quite successful, and that it will be made a regular graduate course offering each Fall semester in the future, starting in the Fall, 2023 term.
PHYS 5300.19 FALL 2023 (Syllabus)
A graduate-level course on Nanoscience and Quantum Sensing.
We will introduce methods of advanced materials properties measurement, and nanomaterials design, within this course. We will also discuss the principles of physics and chemistry at the nanometer scale, and the nature of macroscopic quantum coherence in materials, such as superconductors, superfluids, quantum dot arrays, and in Bose-Einstein Condensates (BEC). Students will study several subtopics in detail including the areas described below:
1) Properties of materials, and engineering principles, as a function of size
2) Multi-scale imaging, AI detection of emergent phenomena, and quantum dot arrays
3) Magnetic properties of materials, nanomagnets, and spintronics
4) Fabrication and characterization of nanomaterials
5) Nuclear nanotechnology, fission / fusion fragment nanoparticles, and applications
6) Quantum coherence, superconductivity, superfluidity, BEC
7) Quantum dot design principles for quantum sensors
In the lab, students will learn to operate the Quantum Design ‘DynaCool' Physical Properties Measurement System (PPMS), and various electron microscopes, and the Zeiss 540 Crossbeam Focused Ion Beam (FIB) system to fabricate quantum dot arrays, and to study emergent structures at the nanometer level. We will also conduct laboratory demonstrations and various other techniques that will be useful for the students to understand as they are introduced to this new field of research.
Weekly calendar of activities and reading materials
| Week | Activities | Reading Materials | Notes |
|
Week #1) 08/24 - 08/25 |
08/24: ONLINE Introduction to the class, grading, laboratory safety (Duncan) Recapturing-a-Future-for-Space-Exploration Presentation 08/24: Aug25_Fall_5300-19.pdf |
Term Begins on 08/24 | |
|
Week #2) 08/28 - 09/01 |
08/31: ONLINE Introduction to the production of nanoparticles (Duncan, Adeosun) |
Presentations 08/29: ONLINE More on size dependence in physics (Duncan)
Presentations: |
|
|
Week #3) 09/04 - 09/08 |
09/05: ONLINE Techniques for producing nanoparticles in the lab (Duncan, Adeosun)
Reading material 09/07: Reese B61 Follow-up on nanoparticle synthesis (Duncan, Adeosun) |
||
|
Week #4) 09/11 - 09/15 |
09/12: Imaging Center Imaging nanoparticles with TEM (Duncan, Lin, Zhao, Adeosun) TEM: H7650 Hitachi TEM: H9500 |
09/14: Imaging Center Quantum dot arrays and applications (Duncan, Lin, Zhao) |
|
|
Week #5) 09/18 - 09/22 |
09/19: Imaging Center Introduction to the Zeiss Crossbeam 540 SEM and FIB Zeiss XB: Zeiss-Crossbeam
09/21: Imaging Center More SEM / FIB lab (Duncan, Lin, Zhao) Hitachi S3400: Student Operating Instructions |
||
|
Week #6) 09/25 - 09/29 |
09/26: Imaging Center Continuation on nanodot array fabrication (Duncan, Lin, Zhao) Oxford EDS: Elemental Analysis |
09/28: Physics 118 Wire bonding (Duncan, Eo, Lin Zhao) |
|
|
Week #7) 10/02 - 10/06 |
10/03: ESB 153 Nuclear measurements – alpha, beta, gamma spectroscopy (Duncan, Lin) |
10/05: ESB 153 Tritium assays / P&E Quantulus instrument (Duncan, Lin) |
|
|
Week #8) 10/09 - 10/13 |
10/10: ONLINE Mossbauer effect and nuclear spectroscopy (Duncan) |
10/12: ONLINE Physical properties of materials, theory and experiment (Duncan) Bocklage-et-al-2021-Coherent-control-collective-nuclear-quantum Heeg-et-al-2021-Coherent-X-ray−optical-control-of-nuclear-excitons |
|
|
Week #9) 10/16 - 10/20 |
10/17: Science 118 Introduction to the Quantum Design PPMS (Eo, Duncan, Lin) Copper Hall Effect: Cu_Hall-Effect Cu HE Results: Cu_Hall-Results Electrical Transport Option Measurement Types: ETO Manual Resistivity Option Measurement Types: Resistivity Manual |
10/17: Lock-in amplifier and resistivity measurements
10/19: Science 118 Measurements of magnetoresistance, Hall conductance (Duncan, Eo, Lin) |
|
|
Week #10) 10/23 - 10/27 |
10/24: Science 118 Quantum Hall Effect Measurements (Eo, Duncan, Lin) Hall Effect, van der Pauw-Hall Option: User's Manual van der Pauw-Hall Example: van der Pauw-Hall
10/26: Science 118 Custom measurements using the PPMS (Duncan, Eo, Lin) Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) option: VSM Specific Heat Capacity Option: Specific Heat |
10/24: Lattice-Confined Fusion, Quantum Nucleonics, & Nanonuclear Physics |
|
|
Week #11) 10/30 - 11/03 |
10/31: Science 118 Magnetic susceptibility measurements with coils & SQUIDs (Duncan, Lin) |
11/02: ONLINE Mr. SQUID® : Reading materials for Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) Magnetic inductance and kinetic inductance (Duncan) Demonstration-of-an-Ultra-Stable-Thermal-Platform_III-Read-Only |
|
|
Week #12) 11/06 - 11/10 |
11/07: ONLINE Competition between superconductivity and magnetism (Duncan) |
11/09: ESB 153 Quantum sensing using Josephson Junction technology |
|
|
Week #13) 11/13 - 11/17 |
11/14: ESB 153 Continuation from 11/09 |
11/16: ONLINE Macroscopic quantum circuits containing SQUIDs (Duncan) "The Nobel Laureate vs The Graduate Student" Superconducting Qubits and the Physics of |
|
|
Week #14) 11/20 - 11/24 |
11/21: ONLINE Mean-field theory, exchange, and critical phenomena (Duncan) |
11/24 - Thanksgiving Break | |
|
Week #15) 11/27 - 12/01 |
11/28: ESB 153 More SQUID-based quantum sensing (Duncan) RFagaly_SQUID_intr_applications Superfluid Transition in 4He Driven Far From Equilibrium
11/30: ESB 153 London moment, rotor precession, and Gravity Probe B (Duncan) |
||
|
Week #16) 12/04 - 12/08 |
12/05: ESB 153 Class summary and future research opportunities (Duncan) |
Last day of classes: Dec 05 | |
|
Week #17) 12/11 - 12/12 |
Term Ends on 12/xx |
Department of Physics and Astronomy
-
Address
Texas Tech University, Physics & Astronomy Department, Box 41051, Lubbock, TX 79409-1051 -
Phone
806.742.3767 | Fax: 806.742.1182 -
Email
physics.astronomy.webmasters@ttu.edu | physics.academic.advising@ttu.edu