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Lab Courses in the M. Sc. Functional Materials

When studying within in the M. Sc. Functional Materials, you will participate in two major lab courses:

  • FML-3: Functional Materials Lab
  • FML-4: Project Lab

The Functional Materials Lab is typically offered during the spring term. The Project Lab is a combination of three different pillars, the Light-Matter-Interaction course (typically offered after the lectures in the summer term), the Electronics Parkour (typically offered after the lectures in the winter term) and a small research project within a research group of your choice.

FML-3: Functional Materials Lab

In this course, you will perform six experiments which are related to topics of the Functional Materials
Program (out of a total number of nine). At this time, these experiments are:

  • FML-1: Terahertz Spectroscopy
  • FML-2: Luminescence and Absorption of Semiconductors
  • FML-3: Scanning Force Microscopy of Thin Molecular Films
  • FML-4: Characterization of Solar Cells
  • FML-5: X-ray Diffraction on Semiconductor Quantum Structures
  • FML-8: Raman Spectroscopy
  • FML-9: Semiconductor Laser Spectroscopy
  • FML-11: Functional Materials for Water Purification
  • FML-12: Soft Lithography / Micro-Patterning

You will perform the experiments in groups of two people, hence you can team up before registration. The experiments are typically performed on Monday (entire day). Sometimes, some additional hours are required on another day. Upon completion of the experiment, you will write a report for each experiment with a length of about 10-12 pages. In this, you will discuss the background of the experiment and in particular your own results. Details on the structure and contents of this protocol will be provided in the opening event for this course. This shall be handed to the experiment’s supervisor within 14 days after the experiment was performed. In many cases, the supervisor will ask for some additional re-corrections. You have to get certifications from the respective advisors that all your protocols are correct. At the end of the semester or at the beginning of the next one, there will be oral presentations, where you will perform a short PowerPoint presentation about one experiment that you have performed in which you will explain what was done in the experiment and what your main results were. This will be evaluated by a group of professors and will constitute your grade in this module.

FML-4: Project Lab

The idea in the Project Lab is that you will perform somewhat more complicated and larger
experiments / series of experiments. This module is based on three pillars:

  1. “Light-Matter-Interaction”
    This course takes place in the first two weeks after the lectures in the summer term (i.e.
    end of July / beginning of August). The experiments will take 2-3 days and you will again
    write a report about this.
  2. “Electronics Parkour”
    This course takes place in the first two weeks after the lectures in the winter term (i.e. end
    of February / beginning of March). The experiments will take 2-3 days and you will again
    write a report about this. In the winter term 2019/2020, the Electronics Parkour will be offered between February 26th and March 1st. Please register by writing a mail to tobias.breuer@physik.uni-marburg.de, at latest by January 24th, 2020. All students studying in their first or second semester should register for this course.
  3. Group Internship:
    An internship in one of the working groups at the Physics department (2 weeks, typically
    one week for the experiments and one week for evaluating the data and completing the
    report). You need to directly get in contact with the supervisors of the respective working
    groups to ask in which topic and at what time you can perform such an internship. (Hint:
    Don’t do this on very short notice, you should contact the professors at least 30 days
    before you plan to start). It is expected that you group up in teams of two people before
    you contact the group leaders.

For all three parts, the report should be about 12 pages long. This module is not graded.

Please register for the Functional Materials Lab by writing an E-Mail to the organizer, Dr. Tobias Breuer: tobias.breuer@physik.uni-marburg.de

Since you will work in groups of two people, you should, if possible, team up before registration and provide me the information about your group (i.e. E-Mail address, matriculation number and full names of both participants).

You are free to state which experiments you would prefer to perform. We will try to follow your preferences if the capacities allow for this. Hence, ideally provide a list with “1st wish: FML-XX, 2nd wish: FML-XY”, so that your priorities are clear.

Further details on the exact procedure will be provided once the semester has started, especially in the opening event at April 27th, at 2:00 pm in Renthof 7, lecture hall.