DAMP Physics, IITB

HS474: Postmodernism and Philosophy (Autumn 2019-20) Course Name: Postmodernism and Philosophy Course Code: HS474 Credits: 6 Course Instructor: Prof. Pravesh G. Jung Course Type: Institute Elective (Theory) Prerequisite: None Course Content: The first half of the semester involved laying the foundation of postmodernism and the philosophical ideas, (like modernism) leading up to it. We did readings of modern thinkers like Plato, Locke, Bacon, Hume, Descartes and Kant. This was followed up with the postmodern ideas of thinkers like Nietzsche, Foucault and Derrida in the second half of the semester.  Useful Books: There are no recommended textbooks for this course. Class notes are absolutely a life saver and the only place to read from for the exams. Lectures: The attendance in the lectures is compulsary, and it is quite necessary since there are no textbooks or resources to study the course contents directly from. Prof Jung connects ideas of different thinkers an

MM474: Science and Technology of Thin Films (2019-20) Course Name: Science and Technology of Thin Films Course Code: MM474 Credits: 6 Course Instructor: Prof. Rajiv O Dusane Course Type: Theory Prerequisite: No formal prerequisites but knowledge of Structure of Materials (MM201) is recommended.   Course Content: Vacuum components and systems. Thin film deposition techniques: Physical and chemical vapour deposition techniques including molecular beam epitaxy, laser ablation and hot wire and microwave CVD techniques.  Film contamination, cosine law of deposition, conformal coverage and line of sight deposition.  Growth of thin films: Thermodynamic and kinetic considerations of deposition of thin films. Characterization of thin films: Different methods of thickness measurements, electrical, optical, chemical and structural property determination.   Books: Materials science of thin films, M. ohring, Academic press. Lectures: Mostly slides are used in lectures. No

MM734: Electrical Characterization of Materials (2019-20) Course Name: Electrical Characterization of Materials Course Code: MM734 Credits: 3 Course Instructor: Prof. Ajit R. Kulkarni Course Type: Theory/Half sem Prerequisite: none   Course Content: Conductivity measurements (bulk and thin films) – 2 and 4 probe measurements in metals, semiconductors and insulators.  Hall effect, mobility, carrier concentration measurements.  AC measurements – impedance and dielectric.  Optical measurements – band gap in semiconductors.  Absorption measurements, photoconductivity, photoluminescence for defects.  Ellipsometry. Work function measurement.  IR and Raman spectroscopy. Lectures: Both slides and board is used for lectures. Slides do not contain everything. Attendance is there. Exams: There is no endsemester exam or quiz. Only an assignment submission, based on finding material given the characterization data. Grading is pretty lenient. Personal Comments: Take

PH543: Advanced Statistical Mechanics Course Name: Advanced Statistical Mechanics Course code: PH543   Credits: 6 Course Instructor: Prof. Amitabha Nandi Course Type: Honours / Elective (Theory) Prerequisite: Statistical Physics (PH304) Course Content: Stochastic differential equations,  Mean field theory,  Landau Mean Field theory Renormalization Other topics covered:   Markov processes and Gillespie's Algorithm Books: Statistical Physics of fields (Kardar), Handbook of Stochastic Processes(Gardiner) Lectures: No compulsory attendance. Blackboard instruction. Lectures are engaging, but you cover a lot each session thus you have to be regular  Assignments: Regular assignments to practice, no tutorials. Examinations not too difficult, and a generous grading policy Exams: 2 quizzes, midsem, endsem and a group presentation Follow-up Courses: Soft matter physics, any stochastic process course in any other department, stock market analysis(no

HS301: Philosophy (2019-20) Course Name:  Introduction to Philosophy Course Code: HS301 Credits: 6 Course Instructor: Prof. Arun Iyer Course Type: HSS core (Theory) Prerequisite: none Course Content: Plato's Apology  Plato's Republic  Plato: The Allegory of the Cave  Aristotle : Nicomachean Ethics Book VI  Rene Descartes: Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy  David Hume: An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding  Kant: What is Enlightenment?  Marx on the Jewish question  Sartre: Existentialism is a Humanism  Tagore on Nationalism , Tagore-Gandhi correspondence  Bhagat Singh's works  Ambedkar: Annihilation of Caste Books/Study Material:   Readings were provided for each topic Lectures: 5% of course total was allocated to attendance.  The Prof. used to discuss important sections from the assigned reading material for the week. Slides summarizing the material were provided for most of the topics. The professor is a good s

PH215: Thermal Physics (2019-20) Course Name: Thermal Physics Course Code: PH215 Credits: 3 Course Instructor: Prof. Vikram Rentala Course Type: Core (Theory / Half Sem) Prerequisite:  No formal prerequisites. The course is developed from very basic. Informally, at a point of time in course Legendre transformations(a concept which will be introduced in Classical Mechanics) will be used and developed. And since Thermal Physics is a half semester course and it is held in second half of the semester(in our time) so we were already introduced to Legendre Transformations in Classical Mechanics. Course Content: Definition and motivation for Thermodynamic Variables like Temperature, Entropy, etc. Postulates of Thermodynamics Conditions of Equilibrium: Thermal, Mechanical and Chemical Euler Equation Gibbs-Duhem Relation Reversible Processes and the Maximal Work Theorem Legendre Transformations and Thermodynamic Potentials First Order Phase Transitions Useful Books: Herber

Course Name:  Digital Image Processing  Course Code:    EE610 Credits:  6 Course Instructor:  S.N. Merchant Course Type:   Institute Elective Prerequisites:    A course on Signals and System, and Random Signal Analysis is recommended by the professor. However, he does not strictly enforce these as a formal pre-requisite. Course Content:   Intensity Transformations and Spatial filtering: Histogram equalization, Histogram Matching Discrete Fourier transform Smoothing and Sharpening in Spatial and Frequency Domain: Ideal, Butterworth and Gaussian Low/High pass filters Fuzzy sets Morphological Image processing Image compression Image Segmentation: edge based, MH + Canny, Region based + thresholding Image Restoration: CLS filtering, Weiner filtering, Inverse filtering Other Topics: Weber law, Brightness Adaptation, Log transform, Power law transform, Spatial Filter Mask, Convolution operation Useful Books: Digital Image Processing by Gonzalez (3rd edition) is faithfully

Course Name:  Group Theory Methods Course Code:    PH563 Credits:  6 Course Instructor:  P. Ramadevi  Course Type:     Honors/ Department Elective Prerequisites:    No formal prerequisite. However, acquaintance with QM1 and Classical Mechanics is helpful. Course Content:   Discrete Groups: Symmetry Groups, Permutation Groups, Direct product, semi direct product Molecular Symmetry Reducible and Irreducible Representations Orthogonality Theorem Character table: Mulliken Notation and Tensor product representation Molecular Vibrations: Selection rules, Normal modes Continuous Group: Orthogonal Group, Lie Algebra, Unitary Group Lorentz Transform SU(2), SU(3), SO groups Clebsch-Gordan coefficients Hydrogen energy levels and symmetry breaking Useful Books: Lecture Notes are sufficient. Group theory and its applications: Hammermesh Chemical Applications of Group Theory: F. Albert Cotton (for Group representation and Molecular Symmetry) Online Study Material: Lecture videos we