Lectures –
This is mostly a repeat of what is in the lab manual, in MS Word.
A pdf copy is here.
Lecture supplements –
Handouts from previous years. Nothing essential but some of it is
still useful.
Matlab_examples
– The Gaussian fitter described in your lab manual is in here.
There are other useful examples here but most are obsolete and/or
incomplete.
Learning to write scientific papers is
a big part of this course. You should follow the format specified in
the course syllabus and adopt a style that is clear and easy to
read.
I list here a few web sites with guidelines. The most general is
from the University of Toronto (http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/physguide.html).
This one from Colombia is short and intended for the life
sciences, but it applies here as well (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/biology/ug/research/paper.html).
Lastly, Prof. Standler spells out some very specific style rules which
you should follow (http://www.rbs0.com/tw.htm).
And here are a couple of famous papers you can analyze to see how well
they did: Parker, Goldhaber.
Technical writing is formulaic and plain. The goal is to transfer
information with no errors. The information above is more than
enough to get you started. The best advice I can give you beyond
that is to write your draft early, put it aside for a couple of days,
read it as if it is not your work, then revise it. If you don't
have much writing experience you may have to revise your manuscript
several times before it is error free and easy to understand (Don't
forget to run a spell check!).
Installation instructions for the
Optical Absorption experiment (software
and spectrometer) are here and also on the
experiment CD. If you are using VISTA you need the latest version
of the software, which you install
here with the password on the CD. Mac and LINUX versions are on
the
CD. Everyone does this experiment.
Here is a form to place on experiments
in progress.