Resources

Facilities

bowdoin physics resources The physics department is well equipped for both research and instruction. Two superconducting magnets, the smaller one operating at a field up to 6 tesla and the other reaching 13.5 tesla, are used in research on the quantum Hall effect, superconductivity, and resonant tunneling studies. A helium leak detector and a computer-based data acquisition system are available for cryogenic work. A mobile pumping station capable of achieving vacuum in the range of 10 -8 torr can be used for gas transfer and sample preparation work. The department has a class 1000 clean room for processing semiconductors and for other applications requiring a controlled environment. The clean room contains a Karl Suss photolithographic mask aligner that is able to pattern microscale circuits and devices. Two intrinsic-germanium detectors and a multiparameter analyzer are used in studies of coincident gamma rays. Apparatus is available for studies of the Mossbauer effect. Other supporting equipment includes a high-vacuum evaporator, and a rapid thermal annealer. Additionally, the department has recently setup a phonon imaging laboratory which allows the study of heat propagation in solids. This is a low temperature imaging system utilizing a cavity dumped argon-ion laser to excite thermal waves in semiconductors and insulators.

The Gedankenlab (Searles 322) contains several PCs running Linux for student and faculty use. The physics department also maintains a Beowulf cluster in its computational physics research lab.

The department supervises the college facility machine shop, which has one full-time machinician and one part-time machinist for the construction of specialized apparatus and the repair and maintenance of existing equipment in the natural science departments. The shop's major equipment includes three lathes, two milling machines and a recently acquired computer-controlled mill. Its resources are available for student instruction.

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