Introduction of Semiconductor Laser Diodes into the Undergraduate Physics Curriculum

9451178霍达普在过去的十年里，固态激光二极管已经进入了广泛的商业电子和工业应用领域。这些廉价、单色、波长可调的强光源不仅在CD播放机中有用，而且在包括原子光谱学和激光冷却在内的许多应用中都很有用。这个项目将探索激光二极管的物理及其在原子光谱学中的应用，并向一年级的物理学生介绍激光光谱学的概念和高级物理课程的一部分。该项目将建造一对光学工作站，适用于测量激光二极管的特性，以及利用光对原子Rb进行吸收和饱和吸收光谱。这些实验的设计是开放式的，允许学生探索物理，而不仅仅是执行标准的食谱类型的实验室。作为该实验室的一部分，高年级学生将被要求向一年级物理实验室的一小群学生展示他们的发现。通过这种方式，学生不仅可以更清楚地学习概念(通过展示它们)，而且这个项目将提供一个传统上在一年级实验室中看不到的令人兴奋的物理介绍。这些高级实验室是所有物理专业的必修课，是教学上向前迈出的重要一步，因为它要求学生(在实验室的背景下)开发自己的实验，做出自己的预测，并真正发现自己的教育。

9451178 Hodapp Over the past decade, solid-state laser diodes have made inroads into a wide range of commercial electronics and industrial applications. These inexpensive, monochromatic, wavelength tunable, intense light sources are useful not only in CD players but in a number of applications including atomic spectroscopy and laser- cooling. This project will explore the physics of laser diodes and their application to atomic spectroscopy as well as introduce first-year physics students to concepts of laser spectroscopy and a portion of the advanced physics curriculum. The project will construct a pair of optical workstations suitable for measuring characteristics of laser diodes as well as for using the light to perform absorption and saturated absorption spectroscopy on atomic rubidium. These experiments have been designed with an open-ended quality to them to allow students to explore the physics, rather than to just execute a standard cookbook type of lab. As a portion of this laboratory, upper-division students will be required to present their findings to small groups of students in first-year physics laboratories. In this way students will not only learn the concepts more clearly (by having to present them), but the project will provide an exciting introduction to physics not traditionally seen in the first-year laboratory. These upper-division laboratories are required of all physics majors and constitute a significant step forward pedagogically, as it requires students to develop their own experiments (within the context of the lab), make their own predictions, and truly discover their own education.