Chemical Physics (CPHY)

The minimum prerequisite for 50000-69999 level courses is graduate standing. The minimum prerequisite for courses 70000 and higher is doctoral standing. Additional prerequisites may apply and are listed in this catalog.

60199 Thesis I (2-6)
Thesis students must register for a total of 6 hours, 2-6 hours in a single semester or distributed over two semesters if desired. S/U grading; IP permissible. Prerequisite: approval of advisor.

60299 Thesis II (2)
Thesis students must continually register each semester until all degree requirements are met. S/U grading; IP permissible. Prerequisite: CPHY 60199.

60498 Research (1-15)
Research or individual investigation. Credits earned may be applied toward meeting degree requirements if approved. Repeat registration permitted. Prerequisite: special approval.

62241/72241 Soft Matter (3)
Lectures on soft materials, including binary fluid mixtures, polymers, colloids, thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystals. Structures, defects, and textures of phases with orientational and partial translational order. Dynamics of phase transitions.

62242/72242  Characterization of Soft Materials (4)
Basic techniques in characterization using X-ray scattering, neutron scattering, light scattering, NMR, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron and tunneling electron microscopy and ellipsometry. Laboratory measurements, error analysis, cell fabrication.

62243/72243 Lyotropic Liquid Crystals and Micellar Systems (3)
Properties of lyotropic liquid crystals, polymer solutions and aqueous solutions of amphiphilic compounds. Self-assembly of amphiphilic compounds, formation and properties of micelles, cylinders, bilayers, vesicles and tubules.

62245/72245 Fundamentals of Liquid Crystal Science (4)
Basic liquid crystals structures and their main physical properties, such as visco-elastic, electric, magnetic and optical properties except the nature of their phase transitions. Also discussed is their interactions with surfaces and the structural defects that they can form.

64491/74491 Seminar: Liquid Crystals (1)
Discussion of current literature or original research in liquid crystals. Participation by students, faculty and guests. Repeat registration permitted. S/U grading. Prerequisite: special approval.

64495/74495 Special Topics in Chemical Physics (1-3)
Topic to be announced when scheduled. Repeat registration permitted. Prerequisite: special approval.

72248 Liquid Crystal Optics and Photonics (3)
Optics of cholesterics, liquid crystalline photonic bandgap materials, nonlinear optics of liquid crystals; optomechanical effects in liquid crystal elastomers.

72249 LabView for Data Acquisition and Instrument Control (1)
Introduction to laboratory data acquisition and instrument control using LabView software. 

72335 Advanced Liquid Crystalline and Polymeric Materials (3)
Lecture/laboratory on ordered systems and materials, including liquid crystals, liquid crystal polymers, guest-host systems and effects, photochemical interactions of anistropic systems, materials for liquid crystal alignment.

72415 Fluid Mechanics and Rheology (3)
Static and dynamic properties of fluids: hydrostatics, Navier Stokes equations, Newtonian fluids, viscosity, anisotropic liquids and rheology of highly viscous fluids. Prerequisite: B.S. in chemistry or physics.

72418 Defects in Liquid Crystal Materials (3)
Defects in solids and liquid crystals: observation and characterization of defects, elastic properties, defect interactions and movement, and phases with periodic defect structures. Prerequisite: B.S. in chemistry or physics.

72461 Nonlinear Optics of Materials (3)
Fundamentals of nonlinear optics of materials: nonlinear polarization and susceptibilities, optical harmonic generation, sum and difference frequency generation, parametric amplifiers and oscillators, and stimulated scattering. Prerequisite: PHYS 4/55501.

72515 Chemistry of Amphiphiles (3)
Multiphase liquid crystal systems: molecular structure and properties of amphiphiles in water with emphasis on thermodynamics of self-assembly, phase properties of micellar, hexagonal and lamellar systems. Prerequisite: special approval.

72517 Membrane Spectroscopy (2)
Multiphase liquid crystal systems: spectroscopic techniques to determine structure and molecular dynamics of model and biological membranes with emphasis on magnetic resonance techniques. Prerequisite: special approval.

72640 Liquid Crystal, Polymer and Colloid Composites (4)
Interdisciplinary science of systems consisting of liquid crystal, polymer and colloid. Statistical physics of composite systems, mixing free energy, phase separation principle, phase diagrams and phase separation dynamics. States, structures and free energies of liquid crystal, polymer and colloidal systems. Polymer dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs), polymer stabilized liquid crystals (PSLCs) and their applications. Laboratory experiments on composite systems and fabrication of PDLC and PSLC light shutters.

72641 Liquid Crystal Surfaces and Interfaces (3)
Surface tension of liquids and solids, surface structure, Wulff  constructions, wetting and roughening, and experimental methods in surface studies. Prerequisite: special approval.

72643 Liquid Crystal Applications (4)
Apply knowledge of liquid crystals and optics to the design of liquid crystal electro-optical devices. Emphasis is on modeling of devices and the use of that modeling to optimize device characteristics. Several particular device designs are considered to familiarize the student with the state of the art in liquid crystal displays and other electro-optical applications of liquid crystals and to prepare them to advance the art in future designs.

72645 Semiconductor Devices (3)
Introduction to semiconductor device technology, including principles of operation, integrated circuit fabrication techniques and device applications. 

72647 Structured Fluids (3)
The basics of fluids having internal structures, such as long range orientational order and/or one and two dimensional positional order. Materials include thermotropic smectic, lamellar lyotropic and columnar liquid crystals. Prerequisite: special approval .

72650 Computational Materials Science (3)
Materials modeling at the classical (i.e. non-quantum) level. Monte Carlo methods; molecular dynamics simulation; mesoscale models; numerical methods; case studies. Prerequisite: special approval.

72651 Nanobiotechnology (3)
Nanobiotechnology is the manipulation and analysis of biological molecules, cellular components with nanometer sizes. This interdisciplinary course presents the concepts, principles and the state-of-the-arts of nanotechnologies and their applications in biological and biomedical science and engineering. Focus is on the fundamental physical principles and engineering technologies of device miniaturization and system integration for bioapplications.

80199 Dissertation I (15)
Doctoral dissertation for which registration in at least two semesters is required, first of which will be semester in which dissertation work is begun, and continuing until the completion of 30 hours. S/U grading; IP permissible. Prerequisite: special approval.

80299 Dissertation II (1 or 15)
Continuing registration required of doctoral students who have completed the initial 30 hours of dissertation and continuing until all degree requirements are met. S/U grading; IP permissible. Prerequisite: Completion of 30 hours of CPHY 80199.

80498 Research (1-15)
Research or individual investigation for doctoral student who has not yet passed candidacy exam. Credit earned may be applied toward degree. Repeat registration permitted. S/U grading; IP permissible.