Physics Department News

Oscillations of solar coronal loops are observed to be strongly damped. This can be explained by mode coupling, which coverts the wave energy from bulk transverse motions to localised, unresolved azimuthal motions. Using the highest quality data currently available, we have found evidence for the Gaussian damping profile predicted by the recently developed theory of damping by mode coupling.

Three Physics postgraduates have been shortlisted in the WATE, "Postgraduates who Teach" category, in recognition of their invaluable contributions: Greg Brown (1st year lab, planetarium outreach), Tobias Eriksson (2nd year electronics lab), and Rachael Procter (Microprocessors lab & outreach). The final selection for awards will be made at the end of June.

Almost a hundred primary school children were welcomed to the Ogden Primary Science Fair, hosted by Ally Caldecote, on April 12th. Finalists were selected from over 1600 entries in eight Coventry and Warwickshire schools to present their science projects to a panel of physics postgraduates and undergraduates. Winning projects included "Where should I keep my balloon?", "Pigs in Space", and "Building a cosmic ray detector".

Well, high school physics (courtesy Herr (Mr.) Albert Einstein) tells us that when a material is subjected to illumination, an electron in released from the valence to the conduction band under the condition that the energy of the incoming photon is higher than the band gap of the material. This effect is known as the photoelectric effect. If, by any means, this electron is forced to remain in conduction band, then a persistent current can be drawn from the material. This is pretty much the underlying mechanism of solar cells, where such electrons are inhibited from recombining by creating an artificial potential junction...