PY2P10

Module PY2P10/PY2N10 Classical Physics

Cohort: SF Science (Physics), SF Nanoscience, Physics and Chemistry of Advanced Materials, SF Chemistry with Molecular Modelling

Credits: 10

Duration: Michaelmas Term, 12 lectures for each element.

This module combines four elements of classical physics as follows:

Oscillations

Lecturer: Professor J. McGilp

Description:
Review of simple harmonic motion. Forced and damped oscillations. Resonance. Two coupled oscillators, modes and normal coordinates. Many coupled oscillators. Transition to continuous systems. Waves. Nonlinear behaviour. Anharmonic behaviour.

Lecture Notes: Oscillations

Physical Optics

Lecturer: Professor E. McCabe

Description:
Introduction: light as a wave. Plane waves. Light in matter: electron oscillator for a dielectric. Refractive index and dispersion. Optical properties of metals. Polarisation of light. Linear, circular and elliptical polarisation. Birefringence in uniaxial crystals. Polarisation components. Polarisation by reflection, scattering. Retarders and analysis of polarised light. Angular momentum of the photon. Interference and coherence - complex degree of coherence. Visibility of fringes, temporal coherence and spectral bandwidth, spatial coherence. Interference- wavefront and amplitude splitting interferometers, types and location of fringes, and applications of interferometry. Multiple beam interference. Fabry-Perot interferometer. Diffraction - near-field and far-field diffraction.

Lecture Notes: see TCD Blackboard

Thermodynamics

Lecturer: Professor G. Cross

Description:
First law of thermodynamics. Internal energy, heat and work. Reversible and irreversible processes. Specific heat. Second law of thermodynamics. Heat engines, Carnot cycles. Entropy. Probability and disorder. Combined first and second laws. Central equation. H, F, G. Maxwell's relations. Energy equations. Cooling processes. Joule-Kelvin effect. Third law of thermodynamics. Van der Waals model for real gases.

Current Electricity

Lecturer: Professor H. Zhang

Description:
Theory of metallic conduction, resistors, power dissipation, voltage dividers, voltage and current sources, Thevenin's theorem and Norton's theorem. Capacitors and R-C circuits. Review of magnetic field and magnetic force. The Hall effect, Ampere's Law and displacement current. Review of electromagnetic induction, mutual inductance and self-inductance. R-L circuits and L-R-C circuits. AC circuits, phasor diagrams, reactance, resonance, transformers and complex representation of reactance. R-C integration and differentiation, R-C low and high pass filters and active filters. Introduction to semiconductor devices: doping, p-n junction, rectification, and bipolar junction transistor.