Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
pages.cs.wisc.edu
Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
1–10 of 88 posts
Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
#2The CS conclusion was worthy though
Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
#3Pretty funny.
Having taught low-temperature condensed matter labs, a big part of the grade is figuring out what went wrong, and either correcting for it, or at least acknowledging that it went wrong. The student needed to give more information about the experimental setup (what instruments did they use? four point or two point resistance? resistivity vs resistance? what is R_0?) and why they think the experiment didn't work. It looks to me like they had something miswired, so they only measured noise.
Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
#4You sure it isn’t Schottky diodes formed by the metallic contacts that are interfering with the measurement of the bulk germanium properties?
I’d sputter deposit metallic contact regions and solder to those, then maybe compare two different thickness samples and look at the difference in resistivity vs. temperature, essentially de-embedding your fixture.
Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
#5Exactly my experience back in the days doing the mandatory "advanced experimental physics laboratory semester" where you had to do like 14 vastly different experiment of the caliber described in that post in the course of one semester on old equipment that would break during the experiment, with less than motivated PhD students or post grads as teachers. Of the 14 experiments only two worked and we got the expected results.
This experience drove me right into theoretical physics and writing computer simulations of electron dynamics and light-matter interactions in confined semiconductors (quantum dots, graphene and the like). That was fun.
Now I am working on medical device software development, as the other stuff does not pay the bills.
Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
#6This was one of the funniest things going around the Physics department when I was in school. I can assure you it is older than 2007. 1998 or ‘99 iirc.
Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
#7As an odd coincidence, I did the same experiment on a shoestring budget with substandard equipment also. I too used a fancy computer algorithm to get a best fit. Except that I managed to get four significant decimal places in the result — an improvement over the (also outdated) textbook.
The author of the angry rant had a life-defining experience of overwhelming frustration.
The same scenario resulted in a positive life-defining experience for me
It’s funny how unpredictably things pan out even in identical circumstances…
Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
#8Original publication: Kovar, L. “Electron Band Structure In Germanium, My Ass.” Annals of Improbable Research, vol. 7, no. 3, May/June 2001, p. 4, https://web.archive.org/web/20010620051228/http://www.improb...
Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
#9Exactly my experience back in the days doing the mandatory "advanced experimental physics laboratory semester" where you had to do like 14 vastly different experiment of the caliber described in that post in the course of one semester on old equipment that would break during the experiment, with less than motivated PhD students or post grads as teachers. Of the 14 experiments only two worked and we got the expected r…
Yeah I don't quite understand how the physics curriculum is set. There is more and more physics discovered over time and yet the time you get to study remains the same. 4 years is not enough time to learn the math and physics you need to do anything real, not counting the other important stuff you need to do (like English comp and partying and getting your heart broken).
Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2000)
#10This was my experience when doing some of measurements back while getting higher ed.
Sometimes you just get random results that has no relation to what you expected to get based on theory (and not just theory, but common sense). They're not zero and not over the top, they're just useless.