Lectures: T & R 12:30 - 1:45 PM
Lab times scheduled throughout the week.
Instructor:
David Stuart, stuart@physics.ucsb.edu
Office Hours: during lab times
Teaching assistant: Peter Thomas Lloyd
Learning assistant: Rebecca Nishide
Course overview: This is a hands-on course similar to other labs such as Phys128AL, but it is designed to allow you to work more independently on an open-ended project that is intended to be closer to an independent research project than is Phys128AL. You will work in a small team with other students to use a radiation detector to measure a cosmic ray property of your choice, analyze the data, and write a journal article-like paper reporting the results. You will receive general guidance but each team will need to plan and carry out the measurements themselves, so this will likely be more intensive than other lab courses. While the detector will be provided to you, you will also learn to design and construct electronic circuits and 3D print mechanical supports related to the detector.
Pre-requisites: At least one of the following: Phys127AL, Phys128AL, Phys129L, or Phys134L, or consent of instructor based on other preparation.
Required materials: No text book is required, but you will need to purchase a raspberry pi, which costs about $20 (e.g., here). You will also need a micro-SD card, micro-USB power adapter, and mini-HDMI to HDMI adapter. However I will have about 20 of these available for you to borrow if you prefer. To use the raspberry pi, you will need access to an HDMI display, keyboard, and mouse; or you can use another computer with which to connect to the raspberry pi.
Grades: Your course grade will be based on the following components: Logbooks 40%, Homework 20%, Final paper 20%, Final exam 20%.
Your logbook should be detailed and complete. You should record in it what you are doing while you are working through the design and debugging of your detector, not afterward. Include enough explanation that the notebook can be understood without asking you. Indeed, you should have enough information included that a reader can reproduce what you did. It is OK to have mistakes in your notebook, in fact they are expected in any properly complete, real-time record. You should include commentary on your various plans and tests, as well as how you figured out that there were mistakes.
You should draw and clearly label a schematic for all your measurements. You should also save electronic copies of the key results, such as plots and analysis programs, as you proceed through the lab work, not afterward. These will be critical for preparing the paper at the end of the quarter. In your logbook you should write the filename of the plots, and any related information like the data files and a backed up copy of the software used to make the plot from the data.
Homework will include exercises on the technical details. It will be posted on gauchospace and is due about one week after assignment. Graded homework will be returned electronically about a week after it is due.
Lecture # | Lecture Topic |
---|---|
1 [slides] | Course overview [zoom rec]
Discovery of radiation and cosmic rays[zoom rec] Principle of operation for radiation detectors [zoom rec] Detecting single photons [zoom rec] Analyzing single photon data [zoom rec] |
2 [slides] | Detecting photons from a scintillator with a source[zoom rec] |
3 [slides] | Discovery of cosmic rays and design of our detector [zoom rec] |
4 [slides] | Details of SiPM operation [zoom rec]
Using the Raspberry Pi [zoom rec] |
5 [slides] | Using the detector board [zoom rec] |
6 [slides] | Datataking software [zoom rec] |
7 [slides] | Using the datataking software [zoom rec] |
8 [slides] | Livetime and I2C [zoom rec] |
9 [slides] | Studies of the signal size and dE/dx [zoom rec] |
10 [slides] | PCB layout [zoom rec] |
11 [slides] | More PCB layout [zoom rec] |
12 [slides] | More PCB layout [zoom rec] |
13 [slides] | Ordering your PCBs [zoom rec] |
14 [slides] | Mechanical modeling and 3D printing [zoom rec] |
15 [slides] | Example presentation and web scripting [zoom rec] |
16 [slides] | More web scripting [zoom rec] |
17 [slides] | More web scripting [zoom rec] |
18 [slides] | Monte Carlo simulation [zoom rec] |