Laboratory Skills

General Lab Skills for Experimental Physics

1. The Perils of Dimensional Analysis

• What is T at the surface of last scattering? It is not kT = 13.6 eV

1. Soldering
2. Noise Analysis of Electronic Circuits

• Johnson noise in resistors
• method of impedance calculations
• opamps
• relation to Fluc Diss theorem
• 1/f noise in resistors
• RF issues
• DC / low freq issues

1. How to set up an optical table for low noise measurements
2. Thermal control of a box
3. Laser Loop Stabilization
4. Damping a Pendulum
5. Thermal Noise in Mechanical Experiments
6. UHV best practices
7. Signal Processing
8. Generic Feedback Loop Design
9. Some notes/thoughts on how to choose materials for stuff (metals, glasses, plastics, etc)
10. My Adventures with the Nd:YAG NPRO (1996 - 2019)
11. Optical Contacting
12. Should I buy this gadget or just make it myself? (inspired by Doug Osheroff)

ReST CheatSheet