Planning your time

The 'estimated time on task' for each assessment item is an estimate of the additional time needed to complete each assessment outside of all scheduled learning activities. These estimates assume that you actively engage with all scheduled learning activities and spend an additional 31 hours of self-led study during the session. If you receive special consideration for the final exam, a supplementary exam will be scheduled after the end of the normal exam period. By making a special consideration application for the final exam you are declaring yourself available for a resit during the supplementary examination period and will not be eligible for a second special consideration approval based on pre-existing commitments. Please ensure you are familiar with the policy prior to submitting an application. Approved applicants will receive an individual notification one week prior to the exam with the exact date and time of their supplementary examination.

Requirements to Pass the Unit

There are no hurdle tasks specified in this unit. Consequently, the requirement to pass is to obtain an overall mark of at least 50% across the three assessment components.

Late Submission Policy

• 5% penalty per day: If you submit your assessment late, 5% of the total possible marks will be deducted for each day (including weekends), up to 7 days.
  • Example 1 (out of 100): If you score 85/100 but submit 20 hours late, you will lose 5 marks and receive 80/100.
  • Example 2 (out of 30): If you score 27/30 but submit 1 day late, you will lose 1.5 marks and receive 25.5/30.
• After 7 days: Submissions more than 7 days late will receive a mark of 0.
• Extensions:
  • Automatic short extension: Some assessments are eligible for automatic short extension. You can only apply for an automatic short extension before the due date.
  • Special Consideration: If you need more time due to serious issues and for any assessments that are not eligible for Short Extension, you must apply for Special Consideration.

Need help? Review the Special Consideration page HERE

Viva with written submission

In Week 9 you will submit your written work on a set of problems. In conjunction with this you will also be asked to present and discuss one of the problems in a viva type assessment.  The problems that contribute to the submission will be released in blocks as we complete the relevant sections of content.  The problem that you will be asked to present will not be known beforehand.  More details on this assessment, including a rubric, will be presented in class at the start of the unit.

Specific assessment information regarding lab experiments and reports

Students will have to conduct four out of the following experiments available in the practical part of PHYS3180:

• Debye Temperature
• X-ray Diffraction
• Properties of Semiconductors
• Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
• Superconductors
• Confocal Microscopy of Nanoemitters

Please note the following points

1. You are required to complete four of the experiments throughout the session.
2. Students should make a booking for two lab sessions for each experiment they undertake. A booking gives priority provided the students arrive punctually at the start of the laboratory session.
3. A set of resources in a folder is available for each project, which can be downloaded from iLearn.
4. You should refer to the document Recommendations for Laboratory Report Writing when preparing reports. Please ensure that your reports conform to these guidelines, and feel free to discuss this with any of the staff. You are required to write a combined report for two of the four experiments.  You will be individually contacted with information about which experiments you will write reports for, (they will be selected as one from experiment 1 or 2, and one from experiment 3 or 4, from the four that you complete).
5. Your reports should not contain text that has been copied from the instructional notes. You should provide background and discussion material in your own words. It is expected that you produce your own original figures wherever possible, either hand-drawn or computer-generated. Anything taken from another source must be clearly acknowledged.
6. Besides the formal report, you are required to write complete (Python-based) electronic lab notes that provide the base for the lab report writing. After each two week experimental session, the electronic lab notes will be pulled and informal feedback provided, which will allow you to address any issues well before the report writing time. Your lab notes should reflect your in-class prac work.

Textbooks

Reference book covering weeks 1-7: Concepts in Thermal Physics, 2nd edition, by S.J. & K.M. Blundell

Required textbook covering weeks 8-13:  Oxford Solid State Basics, by Steven H. Simon.

Note: Lecture materials, additional reading and SGTA material, and  will be posted to iLearn

Communication

We will communicate with you via your university email or through announcements on iLearn. Queries to convenors can either be placed on the iLearn discussion board or sent from your university email address to your lecturers via their email addresses.

Lectures and problem-solving classes start in week 1.

Labs are likely to start in Week 2 but please check on iLearn for an update as the lab space has been rennovated and there may be set up delays.  Please review the lab safety information and complete the quiz before showing up to the lab in Week 3.

Lectures

Week 1: Macrostates and microstates, thermodynamic equilibrium, the equilibrium state, and the zeroth law

Week 2: State and path variables; work, heat and the first law

Week 3: Ideal gas processes and heat capacity

Week 4: The second law, reversibility and engines

Week 5: Principles of statistical mechanics and the Boltzmann distribution

Week 6: Free energy and the partition function;

Week 7: Planck distribution

Week 8: Electron transport in solids, Drude model

Week 9: Sommerfeld theory of electrons

Week 10: 1D solid: phonons and electrons

Week 11: Crystal Structure & Reciprocal Lattice

Week 12: Wave Scattering by crystals

Week 13: Electrons in solids – bandstructure

Note: The division by week and topics is approximate and will change depending on progress.

Laboratory Schedule

Please check the unit iLearn page for an updated laboratory schedule as there may be delays due to rennovation of the laboratory room.

The assessment structure of the unit has changed since the previous offering, with a written problem set submission and oral viva replacing the assignemnts used previously.