Welcome to the Advanced Laboratory Course for Master Students!

In this class you will learn how to perform modern experiments in physics and how to write and talk about your experimental work. It is a challenging class that requires a lot of work and effort. For most of the term you will work together with another student, but at the beginning of the class you will perform one experiment alone. In total you will carry out 6 experiments from different fields of physics. Each experiment will be supervised by a tutor. Tutors help with carrying out experiments and grade experimental reports completed after the experiment. They will also judge your understanding and decide whether you are allowed to perform an experiment. Each group will present a seminar-style talk about one of their experiment to the entire class.

The Advanced Lab requires you to study and master the fundamental physics of each experiment. There is no lecture associated with the course. Instead, you will get written material that you need to understand by studying textbooks and discussing with your group mate.

Prerequisites

There are no formal requirements, but you should only take this class if you carried out hands-on experimental work during your Bachelor studies. You need experience in data analysis and with long-form scientific writing -- you will have to submit 6 lab reports, each report 10–15 pages long. This course assumes that you have a base knowledge of quantum mechanics, solid-state physics, atomic and molecular physics, and statistical physics (many experiments require a background in these subjects). You need a solid understanding of data analysis, such as error propagation, confidence intervals, and fitting.

If you DO NOT have the above expertise -- please do not take this class. Instead, register for "Preparatory Course to the Advanced Master Laboratory". This class is designed to provide this background and to prepare you for the Advanced Labs class next semester.

Important

1. To participate in the class, you must register for the course on Campus Management.

2. In addition, you should register here: Registration and fill out a quick survey. There, you will let us know your preferred group partner and experiment. The deadline for registration is 09.04.2025.

3. There will be an Introduction to the Advanced Master Lab on Tuesday, April 15, 2-4pm  Lecture Hall A.
4. The mandatory safety instruction will take place on 16.04.2025 at 2pm in Lecture Hall B.
   
5. The experiments will start towards the end of April
6. There will be lectures reviewing Data analysis and on Scientific Integrity. The lecture on scientific integrity is mandatory; it will take place 22.04.2025, 2-4pm in Lecture Hall A. The two lectures on data analysis will take place on 16.04.2025, noon-2pm in Lecture Hall B and 29.04.2025, 2-4pm in Lecture Hall A. These dates are also listed in the course schedule under downloads.
7. The seminar talks will start in May.

The laboratory-safety lecture and in the lecture on scientific integrity are mandatory. You cannot attend the course if you miss them. Make sure to attend both lectures.

The tutors will test your understanding of the physics and the experimental setup before the experiment. If unprepared, you will not be allowed to perform the experiment. 

Experiments

You can find key points (pdf) for each experiment describing Physics, Technical, and Data Analysis by pressing the number (Ma1, ...)

No.	Experiments during the semester	Room
Ma1	Compton Effect	0.4.57
Ma2	Low Energy Electron Diffraction on Surfaces (LEED)	0.4.02
Ma3	Pulsed Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)	0.4.02
Ma4	Photoelectron spectroscopy (PES)	1.4.24
Ma6	Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)	0.3.18
Ma7	Raman Scattering:	1.1.46
Ma8	Superconductivity	0.4.09
Ma9	Photoluminescence	1.1.46
Ma10	Auger Spectroscopy	1.4.24
Ma12	Magnetooptic Kerr Effect and magnetic anisotropies (MOKE)	0.1.13
Ma14	Solid State Laser Principles	0.1.29
Ma15	Electron Paramagnetic Resonance	0.4.07
Ma16	Femtosecond Laser Spectroscopy of Coherent Phonons	FHI
Ma18	Phase Transition in Biological Membranes	0.1.16
Ma22	Electron Transport in Two-Dimensional Materials	0.2.06