Lasers in the Undergraduate Curriculum

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Through this grant, the university is purchasing lasers and associated spectroscopic equipment. The approach in the project is to combine the strengths of the chemistry and physics curricula and to take advantage of the small class sizes characteristic of the university. In the upper-division courses, equipment is shared between the two departments and students from the two departments collaborate with each other. An excited state lifetime experiment is being performed by both sets of students. In addition, chemistry students are exploring molecular rotations, light scattering, and vibrational spectroscopy. Using essentially the same equipment, physics students are studying the properties of laser light, measuring the speed of light, exploring nonlinear-optical phenomena, and characterizing dispersion in optical fibers. The project also affects lower-division students. A new course, designed for non-science-majors, centers on holography. In this four-credit course, containing both a lecture and laboratory component, the nature of light is discussed along with introductory optics, principles of measurement, physiology of vision, and quantum versus classical effects. In addition, a historical perspective on many of these topics is presented. Chemistry majors are required to submit a senior research thesis based on experimental work. The equipment purchased expands the areas of research accessible to these students.