Experiments in Micro-/Nano- Characterization of Material Surfaces

This paper describes eight experiments developed for a 4-quarter credit hour upper-division technical elective course on Micro-and Nano-Characterization of Material Surfaces.The course has 3 hours/week of lectures and a 2 hours/week laboratory segment.Offered for the second time last Spring quarter, the course has attracted students from mechanical engineering, microelectronic engineering, materials science and engineering as well a doctoral student in Microsystems Engineering.The course has become part of a concentration program in Nanotechnology and MEMS being developed under a department-level reform grant from the National Science Foundation to the department of microelectronic engineering.The experiments cover two families of techniques: atomic force microscopy and x-ray diffraction.At the end of each experiment, each student pair is given a different experimental dataset to analyze.Students submit their analysis and results in a written lab report.The paper also describes the format of the lab reports.