EMS 172L: Electronic, Magnetic,

and Optical Properties Laboratory

LABORATORY MANUAL (FALL 2018)

IAN RIPPY
Release notes
V5, some lab designs based on 2015 lab manual authored by Derrick Kaseman, others by Dr. Rajesh Chopdekar

UC Davis MSE EMS 172L Fall 2018 Page | 1

Table of Contents

Course Syllabus and Due Dates 3

Lab Report Guide and Rubric 5

Engineering Memo Guide and Rubric 7

General Laboratory Safety Rules 9

Appendix A: Notes on Error Analysis and Error Propagation 10

UC Davis MSE EMS 172L Fall 2018 Page | 2

 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
EMS 172L: Electronic, Magnetic, and Optical Properties Laboratory
COURSE OUTLINE - Fall 2018
Discussion: F 1:10-2PM in Roesler Hall 55

Lab: Section 1 – F 10:00AM-12:50PM in Kemper 163

Section 2 – T 10:00AM-12:50PM in Kemper 163
Section 3 – W 1:10PM-4:00PM in Kemper 163
Section 4 – M 1:10PM-4:00PM in Kemper 163

Instructor: Ian Rippy email: girippy@ucdavis.edu

Bainer 1123
Office hours: M 12-1PM and R 12-1PM, Bainer 1123 or by appointment
Course webpage: accessible at https://canvas.ucdavis.edu/

Teaching Assistants: Jianheng Li email: jheli@ucdavis.edu

Office hours: Thursday 11-12PM Bainer 1123

Yiqing Xia email: yqxia@ucdavis.edu

Office hours: Tuesday 4-5PM Academic Surge 1033

Reader: Kenneth Ainslie email: kbainslie@ucdavis.edu

Textbooks (optional): 1. J.R.Taylor, An Introduction to Error Analysis, 2nd edition, University Science Books,
1996. ISBN 093570275X (paperback)
2. S.O. Kasap, Principles of Electronic Materials and Devices, 3rd Edition,
McGraw-Hill, 2000. ISBN: 0-07-295791-3 (hardcover), 0-07-124458-1 (paperback)
3. R.E. Hummel, Electronic Properties of Materials, 3rd/4th Edition, Springer,
2001/2011, ISBN: 0-3876-95144/1-4419-8163-9 (4th edition available electronically
(free) or in softcover ($24.95) from Springer when using a UC Davis IP address)
4. J.D. Livingston, Electronic Properties of Engineering Materials, 1st Edition, Wiley
1998, ISBN: 978-0471316275

Prerequisites: Concurrent enrollment in EMS 172 recommended

Grading: Attendance / Participation 10%

Lab Reports (5) 60%
Memos (4) 30%

Course Policies:
1. Prompt attendance for all laboratory sessions is mandatory, as safety information will be reviewed per
experiment. If you are not present for the safety briefing, you will receive a zero for the lab.
2. Follow the Class Schedule below – you do not need to attend lab or discussion section if there is no lab or
discussion held that day.
3. You must agree to abide by the laboratory safety rules (see handout).
4. Lab reports and memos are due one week from the day of the experiment by 6PM unless otherwise specified.
All assignments should be submitted through Canvas. For example, if you are in the Friday section, your
reports and memos are due the next Friday at 6PM. Late reports are penalized 33% of the full grade per day.
5. Absence due to illness (doctor’s note required) or academic conflict such as a conference can be excused, but
discussion with the instructor is necessary before any missed lab section.
UC Davis MSE EMS 172L Fall 2018 Page | 3
6. Unless you are instructed otherwise, you may discuss results and analysis pertaining to laboratory reports with
other students in the class, but all submitted work must be your own. The UC Davis Code of Academic
Conduct will be strictly enforced in cases of academic dishonesty, etc. (see http://sja.ucdavis.edu/cac.html).
If you have any questions, speak with the instructor.
7. It is expected that students will abide by the UC Davis Principles of Community (see
http://occr.ucdavis.edu/poc/).
8. You are required to complete your Academic Participation Verification (see https://participate.ucdavis.edu/)
by the quarter add deadline. Failure to do so may results in a reduction of your financial aid.

Upon successful completion of this course, the students are expected to acquire or improve upon the ability to
apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering; and the ability to apply advanced science (such as
chemistry and physics) and engineering principles to the electronic, magnetic and optical properties of materials.
Students are further expected to clearly and logically communicate the above application of science and
engineering principles in written form.

Class Schedule (Subject to Change):

Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4

Lab Session Lecture
(F 10AM) (T 10AM) (W 1PM) (M 1PM)
Syllabus, Safety,
9/28/18 10/5/18 10/2/18 10/3/18 10/1/18
and Measurements
Band Structure of
10/5/18 10/12/18 10/9/18 10/10/18 10/8/18
Nanoparticles
Conductivity of
Metals and 10/12/18 10/19/18 10/16/18 10/17/18 10/15/18
Semiconductors
Temperature
Dependence of 10/19/18 10/26/18 10/23/18 10/23/18 10/22/18
Band Structures
LED’s and
10/26/18 11/2/18 10/30/18 10/31/18 10/29/18
Photodiodes
Dielectric
11/2/18 11/9/18 11/6/18 11/7/18 11/5/18
Materials
Optics and
11/9/18 11/16/18 11/13/18 11/14/18 11/19/18
Dielectrics
Magnetic
Properties of 11/16/18 11/30/18 11/27/18 11/27/18 11/26/18
Materials
Properties of
11/30/18 12/7/18 12/4/18 12/5/18 12/3/18
Superconductors

UC Davis MSE EMS 172L Fall 2018 Page | 4

 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
EMS 172L: Electronic, Magnetic, and Optical Properties Laboratory
Lab Report Guide and Rubric - Fall 2018
Lab reports should be approximately 1250-1500 words in length (not counting references or abstract). Do not try
to complete a report in a single night, and use office hours for critique of report drafts!
The abstract should consist of a concise statement of the results (with errors) and conclusions of the report. The
procedures or any other background information are not included in this section. Abstracts are about a paragraph
(150-200 words) in length. Although they appear first in the report, they are usually the last section written - you
should know the results only after you have written the rest of the report.
The introduction states the objective of the experiment and provides the reader with concise background material
on the experiment, including theory, previous research, or formulas that will be used later in the report. Also
outline what expected results should be received after completing the experiment (e.g. order of magnitude
estimates and why).
The experimental procedure outlines the basic steps taken to perform the experiment, with any pertinent caveats
that you notice when following the manual instructions. Another researcher/student should be able to reproduce
your results based on your report and the lab manual. Rewriting the step by step instructions of the lab manual is
too detailed, limit yourself to the pertinent details.
The results section should list the results obtained in the experiment either in table or figure form with appropriate
captions. No discussion of the results appears in this section. You do not need to include all raw data obtained in
this experiment – only include the data elaborated on in the discussion section.
The discussion section is arguably the most important section of the report. In this section you should explain,
analyze (e.g. with calculations), and interpret your results, thereby demonstrating your understanding of the
concepts underlying the experiment. Typical questions that you should address: What do the results clearly
indicate? What is the significance of the results? What ambiguities exist (error analysis)? In this section, compare
your results to expected results, analyze experimental error, and explain your results in terms of theoretical issues.
The conclusion consists of a summary of the experimental results and your conclusions. Comment on possible
modifications/improvements to the experiment that might help to achieve the objectives of the lab.
References should consist of published sources (journals, textbooks, etc.) listed using a standard formatting
scheme (see Applied Physics Letters, IEEE, etc…). Web citations (e.g. Wikipedia) are not acceptable. It is highly
recommended to use a software tool such as EndNote to manage your citations and references.

1 or more points will be deducted per error for lack of labels or captions, lack of error bars, errors in usage of
significant figures, etc. at the discretion of the grader. Simple mistakes in grammar or typos will not be strictly
penalized, but the report must be in complete sentences and have a logical flow from start to finish. Again, take
your time and do not try to write the report in one night!

Several example lab reports are available to review on canvas. These consist of reports written to different rubrics
and specifications than those this class will adhere to, and are supplied only as a general guide for the level of
quality that is expected in a lab report.

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Lab Report Rubric:
• Abstract (10 points total)
• Introduction (20 points total)
o Background material (10)
o Specific objectives of the experiment, expected results (5)
o Relevance of experiment to real world applications (5)
• Experimental Procedure (10 points total)
• Results (15 points total)
o Presentation of results in a coherent/sensible manner (8)
o Figures/Tables described adequately/thoroughly (7)
• Discussion (25 points total)
o Address relevant discussion questions in the lab handout (10)
o Critique (how do the expected results match with the experimental results?) (8)
o Error analysis and ambiguities (7)
• Conclusions (10 points total)
o What specific conclusions can be made from the results (5)
o How might the lab be modified to reduce error or lessen ambiguity, and why (5)
• References (10 points total)
o Properly cited references, at least 3 non-textbook

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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
EMS 172L: Electronic, Magnetic, and Optical Properties Laboratory
Engineering Memo Guide and Rubric - Fall 2018
Engineering memos should be much shorter than a lab report, approximately 500-750 words in length (not
counting headers and attachments). While these are much shorter, trying to include all relevant information in a
brief memo can be more difficult than writing a full report. Do not try to complete a memo in a single night, and
use office hours for critique of memo drafts!
The header should be at the top left side of the page, and consist of only a few fields. TO: should be to the course
instructor. FROM: should be all members of your group, but with your name first. DATE: should be the date the
memo was drafted, and SUBJECT: should be a brief summary of the memo in a single concise sentence.
The introduction & purpose states why the sender has sent a memo to the recipient, the purpose of the memo, and
why it is being written and what information it contains. From this paragraph it should be clear to a reader what
the memo is going to be concerning, and why it should concern the recipient.
The methods provides a very basic outline of what methods were used to gather relevant information contained
within the memo. If applicable, simply referencing relevant standard practices (eg ASTM F1892-12) combined
with any modifications to standard techniques is sufficient. Someone with your level of education and training
should be able to replicate your methods from this.
The results & analysis section should very briefly summarize the results of the experiment, while discussing the
importance of these results. Figure and tables should NOT be included in this section, the results may be
presented as part of your prose or in a short bullet point list. The analysis should follow, and state your
interpretation of these summarized results. Calculations and in depth details concerning your analysis methods are
often omitted, unless necessary to the narrative. Your analysis does not require in depth justification, it is taken as
a given that you are qualified to report your results as an authority. Only include the results and analysis that are
relevant to your overall memo.
The recommendations section is one of the more difficult portions of a memo to compose. Here you will need to
provide your expert recommendation concerning the topic you have written about. This can consist of
recommending further experiments, ways to improve the experiment, changes in samples measured, and several
others. This sections above all others is what a future employer will be paying for.
The conclusion is a brief way of ending the memo, a sentence or two to indicate that the memo has ended. It can
often simply be a portion of the introduction rephrased.
Attachments should consist of anything relevant to the memo that someone interested in would look to for
additional information. This would include figures and tables you have produced and reference in your memo
body. In place of a standard references section, include any works that you have referenced. Any attachments that
you produce must be to the same standards in a lab report. Attachments from other sources are not to the same
standard, and can even be photocopied or scanned pages. All attachments must have their own captions or title
pages describing them to the recipient, as well as their relevance to the memo.

1 or more points will be deducted per error for lack of labels or captions, lack of error bars, errors in usage of
significant figures, etc. at the discretion of the grader. The memo must be written to a professional standard, and
points will be deducted at the discretion of the grader for failure to properly format any of the sections. Simple
mistakes in grammar or typos will not be strictly penalized, but the report must be in complete sentences and have
a logical flow from start to finish. Again, take your time and do not try to write the report in one night!

Several example engineering memos are available to review on canvas. These consist of memos written to
different rubrics and specifications than those this class will adhere to, and are supplied only as a general guide
for the level of quality that is expected in a lab memo.

UC Davis MSE EMS 172L Fall 2018 Page | 7

Engineering Memo Rubric:
• Header (10 points total)
• Introduction & Purpose(10 points total)
o Presents a clear statement of purpose for the memo (5)
o Content was meaningful (5)
• Methods (15 points total)
o Applicable standards and equipment referenced (7)
o Methods sufficiently clear for replication by qualified audience (8)
• Results & Analysis and (20 points total)
o Address relevant discussion questions in the lab handout (8)
o Critique (how do the expected results match with the experimental results?) (8)
o Error analysis and ambiguities (4)
• Recommendations (20 points total)
o Recommendations match the results (5)
o All relevant concerns from the handout are addressed (10)
o The recommendations thoroughly address the purpose of the memo (5)
• Conclusions (10 points total)
• Attachments (15 points total)
o Attachments were relevant and well presented (8)
o Figures and tables properly formatted (7)

UC Davis MSE EMS 172L Fall 2018 Page | 8

 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
EMS 172L: Electronic, Optical, and Magnetic Properties of Materials Laboratory
LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS HAZARDS
It is absolutely essential that all of our work be done in a safe manner. Safe working habits are in the
best interests of yourself, your colleagues, your instructor, the equipment, and future students. This
document summarizes the basic laboratory safety rules and the hazards present during the experiments
taught in this course. You need to be aware of them and how to deal with them. The instructor will
discuss each of these with you prior to the start of the experiment. If for some reason you are not
satisfied that your questions and concerns have been adequately addressed you should contact the
department safety coordinator and/or the course instructor:

Department Safety Coordinator Course Instructor

William Doering Ian Rippy
wdoering@ucdavis.edu x2-2509 girippy@ucdavis.edu
3116 Bainer Hall 1123 Bainer Hall

BASIC LABORATORY SAFETY RULES

• No one is allowed in the laboratory without supervision of an instructor or TA.
• No food or drink is allowed in the laboratory.
• No bicycles can be brought into the laboratory.
• In-line skates, roller skates, and skateboards cannot be worn/used in the laboratory.
• All personal belongings which you don't need during the experiment (back-packs, jackets,
umbrellas, etc.) must be stored in the back-pack cubicle or hung on a coat rack.
• Horseplay or unauthorized experiments will not be tolerated.
• Closed-toed shoes and long pants are required in the laboratory.
• Wear the appropriate personal protection equipment at all times. (Protective goggles and aprons
for splash and fume hazards, protective glasses for hazards associated with flying objects, etc.)
• Do not disturb equipment which is not part of your specific experiment.
• Follow all of the safety procedures related to the use of each piece of equipment in the
laboratory.
• If you have a special health condition (asthma, pregnancy, etc.) or personal health concerns,
please notify the TA or instructor and consult a doctor before taking EMS 172L.
• Clean up all areas of the laboratory where you or your group worked.
• Find out where all safety devices in the laboratory are located. These include the first aid kit, fire
extinguisher and fire alarm.
• Know the evacuation procedures.
• Report all injuries/spills/fires to the instructor.
• Failure to comply with the above guidelines can result in your ejection from the laboratory and a
zero for the assignment.

I, ___________________________________________, agree to abide by the above rules when

performing EMS172L experiments, and will follow the above general safety rules as well as laboratory-
specific safety rules to minimize any risks from hazards present during experiments.

Signature ____________________________________________ Date ________________

UC Davis MSE EMS 172L Fall 2018 Page | 9

 Appendix A: Notes on Error Analysis and Error Propagation

As we perform experiments, we need to know how confident we are in the data that we take, and
what judgements we can make from that data. There will always be some uncertainty or ambiguity with
all measurements, and as an engineer you will need to know how your experimental uncertainty affects
your derived quantities of interest. Taylor’s textbook on error analysis (“An Introduction to Error
Analysis”) is a good reference, but this document will detail a few key points on propagation of error and
uncertainty in fit parameters.

Measurement uncertainty is usually dictated by the precision of the instrument used to perform
the measurement. We can say that for a stable digital reading that the error is within 1 unit of the least
significant digit. If the reading is fluctuating, then you can estimate the uncertainty from the magnitude
of the fluctuation. For a counting experiment, the uncertainty is usually reported as the square root of the
counts. An analog reading from a scale such as a ruler is usually precise to within one of the smallest
divisions on the scale. Unless otherwise stated, constants have precisely stated errors, and in some cases
we assume those constants are exact values.

For a counting experiment with sufficient counts (i.e. your measured value is an integer N of some
object, and it is conceivable you may have miscounted), we would quote the measurement best guess as
N and uncertainty as the square root of the number of counts √𝑁. Written more compactly, the best guess
and uncertainty for a counting experiment is:
𝑁 ± √𝑁

Propagation of uncertainties is very important so that you can keep track of how measurement
uncertainty affects values calculated from those measurements. The uncertainty of any measurements
contributing to a calculation are always cumulative. In a calculation, the uncertainty of a variable is shown
by preceding the variable with the Greek letters 𝛿 or ∆. For example, if you have three measurements x,
y, and z, then their respective uncertainties could be shown as 𝛿𝑥, 𝛿𝑦, and 𝛿𝑧. If you have a derived
quantity F(x,y,z) that depends on those measurements, then we can state the uncertainty in F as
𝛿𝐹(sometimes seen as ∆𝐹) by the following derivation
2 2 2
𝑑𝐹 𝑑𝐹 𝑑𝐹
𝛿𝐹 = √( 𝛿𝑥) + ( 𝛿𝑦) + ( 𝛿𝑧)
𝑑𝑥 𝑑𝑦 𝑑𝑧
This gives the statistically most relevant uncertainty for the calculated value F. For calculations with more
or less contributing measurements, the terms can be expanded or removed as needed. Performing this
derivation for every equation is tedious, and so for the most relevant mathematical examples derivations
have been provided.

For cases of only addition or subtraction of measurements, the derivation for the uncertainty would be
𝑐 =𝑥+𝑦−𝑧−𝑤
𝛿𝑐 = √𝛿𝑥 2 + 𝛿𝑦 2 + 𝛿𝑧 2 + 𝛿𝑤 2
For solely the multiplication or division of measured values, the derivation would be
𝑥∗𝑦∗𝑧
𝑐=
𝑤
𝛿𝑐 𝛿𝑥 2 𝛿𝑦 2 𝛿𝑧 2 𝛿𝑤 2
= √( ) + ( ) + ( ) + ( )
𝑐 𝑥 𝑦 𝑧 𝑤

UC Davis MSE EMS 172L Fall 2018 Page | 10

 Often times, multiple readings should be taken for a single experimental value, and the average of
those can be reported as the best guess, with the standard deviation of the mean 𝜎𝑥̅ reported as the
uncertainty of the best guess. We can write the best guess of x measured N times as
1
𝑥̅ = (𝑥1 + 𝑥2 + 𝑥3 + ⋯ + 𝑥𝑁 )
𝑁
The standard deviation of the mean (also called standard error) is related to the variance of the individual
measurements away from the mean value, and can be calculated from
𝑁
1 1
𝜎𝑥̅ = √( ∑(𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥̅ )2 )
√𝑁 𝑁−1
𝑖=1

In summary, for all measured and derived readings, the uncertainty should be reported. We
cannot compare to literature or theoretical values with any good judgement if we do not know how
certain we are of our measured or derived values.

Significant figures need to be kept track of. For any measurement quantity, your significant
figures should match the lowest precision of any of the measurement tools you have used, and the
uncertainty should be used to know when to truncate the value. Also, uncertainty is usually only
reported to one significant figure. For instance, after 5 measurements if you measure an average
distance of 101.031 mm on a set of calipers but your standard error for the measurement is 0.218 mm,
then you would report as your measurement 101.0 ±0.2 as the best estimate with uncertainty. The
same concept applies to derived quantities – while physical constants have well known (and usually very
small) uncertainty, for your derived quantities you must truncate any calculated values such that their
significant figures match the lowest number of significant figures from your starting quantities.

Advanced topics – linear regression and weighted linear regression

We often want to compare a measurement done at different conditions in order to see if a
physical law is obeyed – in other words, if we vary a quantity x, and we expect another measured
quantity y to have some relation with x, how do we test to see if that relationship holds? The easiest
method to do this is to linearize the physical law equation, and to see if we plot f(x) and g(y) on a graph
if that dataset falls on a straight line. For instance, if we want to see if capacitance of a parallel plate
capacitor scales with inverse distance, we expect that the experimental data should follow the equation
𝜖𝐴
𝐶 = 𝑑 with A as the plate area and d as the distance between the plates. We can recast this equation in
the linear form 𝑦 = 𝑎 + 𝑏𝑥 with in this case y=C, 𝑥 = 1/𝑑, the intercept a equal to zero and the slope
𝑏 = 𝜖𝐴. Fitting the data to straight line allows us to extract the dielectric constant if we know the plate
area.
Let us say that we measure both capacitance and distance, and have uncertainties associated with
both quantities. If we ignore the uncertainties, we can get a first guess at the slope b, but this does not
allow us to take into account the experimental uncertainty. Excel allows you to fit a trendline to a
dataset, but offers no uncertainty in the slope by default. In order to assess how well the dataset fits a
line, we have to use linear regression. Excel comes with a free toolpak called “Data Analyis” that can
be installed into a workbook from Excel Options -> Add ins -> Manage Excel Add ins, and check
Analysis Tool Pak to be on (this is for Excel 2013 for PC, your version might be different). Under the
Data/Analysis ribbon use “Data Analysis” and select “Regression” and choose the x and y data columns.
The resulting worksheet ply gives the slope and intercept as the trendline does, but also gives
uncertainties in those quantities as well – in other words, how much scatter is there in the data compared
to the linear fit. Other software allows you to perform this linear regression as well – feel free to use
the program of your choice to do this. The equations necessary to derive this linear regression are in
Chapter 8 of Taylor.
UC Davis MSE EMS 172L Fall 2018 Page | 11
 However, if you want to take your measured uncertainties into account when doing a linear
regression, first we must convert the errors both in x and y into an equivalent uncertainty. For a given
uncertainty 𝜎𝑥 in the x measurement and 𝜎𝑦 in the y measurement, we can just say that the 𝜎𝑥 gives us
𝑑𝑦
more uncertainty in y using 𝜎𝑦,𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑑 = √𝜎𝑦2 + (𝑏𝜎𝑥 )2 with 𝑏 = 𝑑𝑥 as the slope of the linear relation
between y and x. Using these revised uncertainties in our y measurement, we can do a weighted linear
regression – measured values with small uncertainties should have a greater weight than measured
values with large uncertainties. The intercept and slope can be calculated from the equations on the next
page, but I have already implemented these calculations for the capacitance-distance experiment in the
“Student data.xlsx” Excel spreadsheet. This weighted linear regression gives us a better way to
evaluate all of our data without randomly throwing out data points that don’t fall on a linear trend, as we
cannot say for sure when we make a measurement mistake or if the measurement itself has some large
uncertainty.

In conclusion, we cannot compare our derived quantities of interest to theoretical or literature

values without also considering propagated measurement error that gives us bounds on how much we
can trust our derived quantities to be accurate. This involves knowing what systematic errors can be
present in the experiment as well as proper treatment of random errors as propagated from measured
quantities to derived quantities of interest.

The inset equations for

weighted linear regression
are taken from Bevington’s
“Data Reduction and Error
Analysis” textbook, which is
also a good resource on
learning about error analysis
of experimental data.

UC Davis MSE EMS 172L Fall 2018 Page | 12