PH 517: Methods in Analytical Techniques
Prof. Kantimay Dasgupta

Prerequisite

It's an EP core course, hence knowledge of previous EP courses is essential, particularly Condensed Matter Physics, QM (I and II), EM (more than PH108, less than the third year core course), Fourier Transformation etc.

Course Content

Xray and electron diffraction, Spectroscopic methods, NMR and ESR

Books

Not required, slides were sufficient, relevant parts of some textbooks were added to moodle for additional reading, but they were not required for exams, although interesting. (Ex: Goodhews, Humphrey, Beanland)

Lectures

The lecture slides were detailed and well-explained. Furthermore, we had it online, so one could always refer to the recorded lectures when necessary.

Assignments, Exams and Grading

"There was continuous evaluation in the form of assignments. However, most of the assignments were done in groups. Each group was expected to present the solutions to designated problems in the tutorial class. As a class, we compiled the answers. I think for the last assignment, it was not possible to have a tutorial class, so we solved it on our own. We had two quizzes, a midsem and an endsem. If one followed the lectures and solved the tutorials they were sufficient to answer most of the questions. Grading was also lenient in my opinion."

Tips

"If you follow the class and understand the motivation behind the topics and the outline of the derivations in class, and do the tutorial sheets, it's more than sufficient to do fairly well. Don't mug up end results, understand how they arise since the quiz/exam questions will usually test these cases."