MEAM 572
Micro/Nanoscale Energy Transport
Fall 2007

Course Schedule         

Instructor
Dr. Jennifer Lukes
222 Towne
jrlukes@seas.upenn.edu
Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday 4:00-5:00 or by appointment

Location and Time
Lecture: Monday and Wednesday 3:00-4:30, Towne 311 (most weeks).
During selected weeks, lectures will be held Friday 3:00-4:30 in Towne 315 (see schedule for specific dates).

Course Description
As materials and devices shrink to the micro- and nanoscale, they transport heat, light, fluid, and electronic energy much differently than at macroscopic length scales.  This course provides a foundation for studying the transport of mass and of thermal, optical, and electronic energy from a microscopic perspective.  Concepts from solid state physics and statistical mechanics will be introduced to analyze the influence of small characteristic dimensions on the propagation of crystal vibrations, electrons, photons, and molecules in fluids.  Applications to modern microdevices and thermometry techniques will be discussed.  Topics to be covered include natural and fabricated microstructures, transport and scattering of phonons and electrons in solids, photon-phonon and photon-electron interactions, radiative recombinations, elementary kinetic theory, the Boltzmann transport equation, and confined fluids.

Prerequisites
Undergraduate thermodynamics and heat transfer (or equivalent), or permission of the instructor. Undergraduates may enroll with permission of the instructor.

Textbook
Required: Nanoscale Energy Transport and Conversion, by G. Chen, Oxford University Press.
Textbook may be purchased at the Penn Bookstore for $144.50.
The textbook is also on reserve in the Engineering library.
Any additional reading materials will be provided as needed by the instructor.

Homework
Homework will be assigned every 1 - 2 weeks and will be due the following week.

Project
Each student will be required to complete a project, which will include an oral presentation and a final written project report. Project topics will be chosen by the student in consultation with the instructor. Possible projects could include but are not limited to detailed transport calculations, novel research proposals, or critical reviews of related literature. The project will be discussed in more detail as the semester progresses.

Final project presentations: Monday December 17, 3-5 p.m., Towne 307.

Exams
Two midterms will be given in class. There will be no final exam. Instead, the final project presentations will be given during the final examination period and final project reports will also be due at this time.

Midterm dates: Friday October 19 and Friday December 7.

Evaluation
The breakdown of the course:

·  Homework: 30%

·  Midterms: 50% (25% each)

·  Project: 20%

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