This course includes some experimental work that supports the lecture material.
Role within programme and connections to other courses. This course lays the necessary foundations for thinking about phenomena on very small spatial scales. This course calls on many concepts learned in introductory physics: position, momentum, energy, angular momentum, vibrations, waves. It casts many of them in a new light, at times requiring modification of the classical definition of these quantities. Quantum Physics serves as the foundation for the more in–depth learning of the tools of quantum mechanics presented in the Quantum Mechanics trio of courses and the courses which follow from these. In addition, Quantum Physics is essential background for the study of astrophysics and atmospheric physics.
Content. Particle properties of waves: blackbody radiation, photoelectric effect, Compton effect; wave properties of particles: de Broglie waves, Davisson-Germer experiment, the uncertainty principle; old atomic theory: atomic spectra, Rutherford’s model, Bohr’s model, spontaneous and stimulated transitions, lasers; quantum mechanics: the Schrodinger equation, mathematical tools; quantum mechanical examples: square wells and barriers, quantum tunnelling and its applications; quantum theory of atoms.