Courses Offered (AY2024/2025)

This course introduces students to computational thinking as applied to problems in science, with special emphasis on their implementation with Python/Python Notebook (Jupyter). A selection of examples will be chosen to illustrate (a) fundamentals of algorithm design in computer programming (b) solution interpretation, as well as (c) analysis of the computational solutions and data visualization using state-of-the-art tools in Python. The selection will tackle different types of approaches typically used in scientific computational thinking, including deterministic, probabilistic and approximation methods. The course will also highlight scientific computational issues such as accuracy and convergence of numerical results.

Machine learning (ML) is the dominant component of modern research in artificial intelligence. Although ML is largely associated with computer science and software engineering, many of its foundational techniques have historical roots in the natural and social sciences, and are commonly used in those fields. More recently, the rapid development of modern ML also has growing implications for practitioners of the arts and humanities. Using only high-school mathematics and no programming, this course will peer under the tech-centric outer hood of ML, and provide a conceptual-level introduction to the field as well as its most important techniques.

This course starts with an introduction to the historical perspective of astronomy. Planets then stood out as wanderers that moved among the stars. Over history, the study of planets has contributed much to science and the scientific method, and continues to do so today, illustrating the point that as we take in new discoveries, we may be forced to relook our old definitions and theories.

Scientific description of the smallest components of matter (atoms and sub-atomic particles, light) has become known as “quantum theory”. It is one of the greatest triumphs of science: it is not a formalisation of evidence and intuition, but rather harnesses phenomena that are invisible to the naked eye and counter-intuitive. It shows how science can stand behind apparently outlandish claims, and put this knowledge to practical use. The “experimental metaphysics” aspect of quantum physics is introduced through the description of paradigmatic phenomena. Then the history and current challenges are presented, with a special focus on the emerging quantum technologies.

This course is intended for all CHS students interested in the application of science and scientific inquiry to a subject which is believed by most people to be far removed from science – music. The course covers the historical discovery and evolution of the musical scale systems on which all music is based, the physics and technology of musical instruments such as the modern piano, and more modern developments such as electronic music and instruments and the digitisation of music.

It often seems that Science and Art are unrelated: logical truth versus emotional imagination. Still, Science and Art have much in common. Science has caused paradigm shifts in artistic expression and Art is used for communication of knowledge. Students will be introduced to the use of materials related to artistic expression, color and perspective to create a 3-dimensional illusion and technology for dating and attribution of objects of art. Scientific principles of various forms of Art will be explored. The course also aims at the development of some artistic skills for illustration of scientific concepts and designs.

Carbon emissions from energy account for over two-thirds of all global emissions and offer an avenue for mitigating climate change via a transition to clean energy. Electrifying end-use sectors and shifting electricity production towards clean sources form the basis of the decarbonised energy transition. Challenges associated with decarbonisation require an interdisciplinary approach that considers scientific and socio-environmental constraints and opportunities. This course will introduce students to the pillars, major challenges and benefits of transitioning to clean energy. Students will learn how the harnessing of clean energy technologies can be optimised to ensure rapid and fair transition to a low/zero-carbon future.

In this course, we will give students with different scientific backgrounds the opportunity to understand the underpings and development of modern physics. Students will be exposed to the big ideas and fundamental concepts in modern physics with necessary depth, learn about the key historical experiments as well as the revolutionary ideas at frontiers of physics, including quantum physics and Einstein’s theory of relativity.

This course is an introduction to electromagnetics (EM) for electrical engineers. Electromagnetics is essential in all disciplines of electrical engineering. At the end of this course, students will be able to explain many physical phenomena in everyday life, such as electricity energy transmission, wave reflection/transmission, and the impact of skin depth on wave propagation. Topics covered include: static electric fields, static magnetic fields, timevarying fields, electromagnetic waves, transmission lines and antennas.

This essential course for Physics majors gives a first look at and serves as a model for the mathematical treatment of all later Theoretical Physics courses. It assumes knowledge from H2 Mathematics (or the equivalent) and is intended for students who wish to acquire a deep understanding of our Mechanical Universe. It considers the principles of Newtonian Mechanics and covers topics such as kinematics, inertial and non-inertial reference frames, linear momentum, kinetic energy, and angular momentum; Newton’s laws of motion, forces and torques; systems of many particles including rigid bodies; conservation laws; Newtonian gravity and Kepler’s laws of planetary motion.

Introductory aspects of quantum physics. Two state quantum systems. The wave function and Schrodinger equation. Quantum harmonic oscillator; hydrogen atom; spherical harmonics. Atomic spectra. Scattering theory. Applications such as semiconductors, lasers, quantum dots and wires.

This course aims to give students the necessary mathematical skills for other physics courses. The topics to be covered include: complex numbers and hyperbolic functions; series and limits, Taylor series; partial differentiation; multiple integrals; matrices and vector spaces, eigenvalues and eigenvectors; vector calculus; line, surface and volume integrals, Green’s theorem, divergence theorem and Stokes’ theorem; physical applications.

This course introduces the underlying principles and mechanisms of physics behind life sciences. It incorporates introductory concepts of physics into the phenomena associated with biological functions. The topics to be covered include: biological structures and the relation to biophysics; principles and methods of physics applied to biology; physical aspects of structure and functionalities of biomolecules, physical principles of bioenergy conversion and membrane-bound energy transduction; physical processes of bio-transport, nerves and bioelectricity. The course includes some basic biophysics experiments. It is targeted at both physics and non-physics students who already have basic knowledge in physics.

This course will adopt a heuristic approach to celestial dynamics. Mathematics will be introduced only when necessary. Participants will also be enthused with the historical and philosophical development of celestial adventures discussed. Topics covered include elements of Newton and Kepler’s Laws, Planetary Orbits and Rocketry, Apollo program, Saturn V & SpaceX Boosters.

Climate change and global warming are currently some of the most pressing problems that the world has to address. This course aims to provide a basic introduction to the processes that are involved in climate change, based on a physics perspective. Students will learn about climate processes, solar radiation and the energy budget of the earth, as well as basic thermal and radiation physics behind the greenhouse effect and the phenomenon of global warming. The phenomena of loss of sea ice and accelerated sea level rise will also be discussed.

Many topics debated in nanoscience are frontier and futuristic, although some have immediate technological applications. The fundamental scientific principles of all nanotechnology applications, however, are grounded in basic physics and chemistry. This course thus aims to illustrate and discuss the physics and chemistry that are operative at the nanoscale. Students will be introduced to some fundamental principles of physics and chemistry important to the nanoscale and learn to appreciate what the world is like when things are shrunk to this scale. They will also learn about some basic physical tools that can be used to explore structures at this length scale. On completion of this course, students will learn to appreciate the linkages between the fundamental sciences and practical applications in nanotechnology.

This course continues from PC2130 and aims to complete basic introductions of quantum mechanics to physics oriented students. This course will mainly cover the following: angular momentum albegra, spin, identical particles, time-independent perturbation theory, variational principle, time-dependent perturbation theory, and basics of quantum scattering theory, with applications including the Zeeman effect, atomic fine structure and hyperfine structure, ground state of the helium atom, the Fermi golden rule, atom in a classical electromagetic field, stimulated and spontaneous emission, s-wave scattering.

This elective course assumes knowledge of and is a sequel to PC2131. A good command of calculus and linear algebra is desirable. It is intended for students who wish to acquire a deeper understanding of Electricity and Magnetism. It prepares students for more advanced study at the postgraduate level. This course provides a comprehensive treatment of electromagnetic fields and forces. It covers the following topics: Electrostatic fields in matter, magnetostatic fields in matter, time-varying electric and magnetic fields in matter, relativistic electrodynamics, and radiation.

This course presents the basic concepts and principles of atomic and molecular physics. In particular, the course revolves around the energy level schemes of atoms and molecules which are essential to the interpretation of atomic and molecular spectra. Topics covered include the hydrogen and helium atoms, spin-orbit coupling schemes, hyperfine interaction, Lamb shift, atoms in magnetic fields, multi-electron atoms, Pauli exclusion principle, Hund’s rules, diatomic molecules, Born-Oppenheimer approximation, electronic, vibrational, rotational and rotational-vibrational spectra; The course is targeted at students who have background in quantum mechanics and want to build the foundations for studying the interactions of matter and light in modern atomic physics contexts.

The course covers fundamental solid state physics concepts (crystal structure, reciprocal lattice, free electron theory) and the physical properties of metals, electrons in periodic potentials, and basic semiconductor physics: Doping, p-n junctions, crystal defects, diffusion processes, energy bands of the nearly free electron model, tight binding approximations, Fermi surfaces and their experimental determination, optical processes, piezoelectricity, basic ideas of magnetism.

This course introduces physics students to the fundamental aspects of fluid dynamics. The Navier-Stokes equations are derived from first principles. After a discussion of the various versions of Bernoulli’s equation and the concept of vorticity, the study of fluid flows starts with the potential flows, with an application to the theory of airfoils. The theory of irrotational water waves is then presented to illustrate dispersive wave propagation and the hyperbolic tendency to form shocks. The balance of these two tendencies produces soliton solutions. The concept of flow similarity is applied to the study of boundary layer. The phenomenon of boundary layer separation is discussed. The concept of hydrodynamic instability is illustrated with the Rayleigh-Benard convection problem. The chaotic dynamics of the related Lorenz equation is then presented. A brief introduction to turbulence closes the course.

The ability to create and characterize nanomaterials and nanostructures is important for many emerging advanced materials industries, from silicon electronics to intelligent nanosystems. Two general approaches to create nanostructures are bottom-up (colloidal-based chemistry) and top-down (nanofabrication and nanopatterning) methods. The course covers the essential physical chemistry principles and synthesis of bottom-up nanomaterials. Principles and practical aspects of top-down nanostructuring using nanolithography (optical, electron beam, ion beam) and pattern replication methods, including 3D-printing are discussed. Finally, nanocharacterisation using electrons, ions and scanning probe techniques are covered. Knowledge gained will be invaluable to design current and future nanosystems for diverse industries.

This course introduces the application of physics to astronomy. The students will be introduced to some astronomical phenomena, and they will learn to understand these fascinating phenomena by using basic physics. The course allows the physics students to review, and to extend their knowledge. The course cover two basic classes of celestial objects: the stars and planets. The topics include Kepler’s laws, telescopes, binary stars, stellar spectra, stellar interiors, stellar formation and evolution, solar magnetic field, planetary tidal forces, planetary atmospheres, and Newtonian cosmology.

The changes to physical properties (electronic, optical and magnetic) due to formation of structures at the nanoscale will be the main emphasis of this course. Properties differing from the bulk due either to an increase in surface area/volume ratio or quantum confinement will be studied in structures ranging from quantum wells, wires and dots to self-assembled mono-layers and heterostructure formation. The kinetics and thermodynamics driving the formation of these nanostructured surfaces and interfaces will be discussed. The course will also highlight current and potential applications of these nanoscale systems. Examples of materials systems will include metals, oxides, III-V, II-VI, CNT, SiC and SiGe systems.

This course aims to introduce the principles and approaches of physics in the area of molecular biophysics. It includes molecular complexes of biomolecules; physical and symmetrical relationships between biomolecules; physical and structural characteristics of proteins and amino acids; symmetric and statistical descriptions of nucleic acids; first law and second law of thermodynamics in biological systems; bonding and non-bonding potentials, and stabilizing interactions in biomacromolecules, and the correlation to macromolecular structures; molecular mechanics in biological systems; bio soft condensed materials, bio-membrane and biomembrane structure, principles of molecular self assembly of biomolecules. There is a lab component included in this course. This course is targeted at both physics and non-physics students who already have basic knowledge in physics and life sciences.

The course provides hands-on experience with modern detectors, electronics, data acquisition systems, radiation sources and other nuclear physics equipment that forms the basis for the applications of nuclear physics to medical physics, radiation protection and other fields. The course will be restricted to the students in the Medical Physics minor.

This course adopts a heuristic approach to understanding the current paradigm of the first 3 minutes of the Big Bang. Mathematics will be introduced only when necessary. Participants will also be enthused with the historical and philosophical development of Space and Time discussed. Topics covered include Relativity, Quantum Physics and Cosmology.

This course covers the structure of galaxies starting from star formation and star clusters with a strong focus on the analysis of observational data and insights from simulations. We discuss the underlying physics that give rise to the various shapes and structures that we see in galaxies, and briefly discuss the role of the supermassive black hole in the centre of many galaxies. Finally, we end off with clusters of galaxies and the large-scale structure of the universe.

With the rapid ageing of the world population and an increasing world-wide prevalence of chronic and infectious diseases, the demand for medical infrastructure is expected to rise over the foreseeable future. A basic understanding of the various forms of modern medical technology is therefore important as a form of health literacy among the general population. This course provides a basic introduction to the major forms of diagnostic imaging and radiation therapy from a physics perspective. The course content is taught from an introductory level and prior knowledge in biology and medicine is not required.

Quantum technology is a field of physics and engineering which exploits quantum phenomena, such as entanglement, superposition and tunneling, for advanced applications, including quantum computing, quantum key distribution, quantum metrology, and information processing. This is a fast emerging field with strong industry potential. In this course, students will be equipped with essential knowledge in the physics and technology of a wide range of quantum devices, including quantum detectors, quantum light sources, quantum number generators, quantum sensors, and quantum computers. Students will also learn skills in the characterization of these devices, including data analysis and interpretation of quantum behavior.

Computation is playing an increasingly important role in materials discovery. This course introduces the basic concepts and provides an overview of methods in modern computational condensed matter physics. Major topics to be covered include a brief review on empirical and semi-empirical approaches in electronic structure calculation, density functional theory, methods for solving the Kohn-Sham equation, applications to different types of materials, modelling effects of external fields and transport property. The course is suitable for upper level undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in computer modelling and simulation in condensed matter physics and materials science.

This course presents the fundamentals of statistical mechanics. Starting with the classical and quantum postulates, the three ensembles of Gibbs are derived. The statistical interpretation of thermodynamics then follows. The thermodynamic quantities are obtained in terms of the number of states, partition and grand partition functions. Applications to independent electron systems, with and without magnetic field, and Bose-Einstein condensation are given. The course ends with a brief introduction to phase transitions. This course is targeted at physics students with at least one year of thermal physics.

This is an introductory course on the fundamental constituents of matter and their basic interactions; important concepts and principles, recent important experiments, underlying theoretical tools and calculation techniques in elementary particles physics will be expounded. The topics covered are: basic properties of elementary particles and the standard model, relativistic kinematics; symmetries: isospin and SU(3), quark model; parity and CP violation; Feynman diagrams and rules; quantum electrodynamics; cross sections and lifetimes: deep inelastic scattering; and introductory gauge theories and unified models. This course is mainly targeted at physics majors.

This course provides an introduction to the theory of general relativity. The topics covered are: general tensor analysis, the Riemann tensor, the gravitational field equation, the Schwarzschild solution, experimental tests of general relativity, black holes, and Friedmann-Robertson-Walker models of the expanding universe. While this course is mainly targeted at physics majors, it is also suitable for science students with a strong mathematical foundation.

The scope of the course embraces the basic principles of thin-film deposition techniques such as chemical vapor deposition and physical vapor deposition as well as their applications in the microelectronics industry. The basic principles include vacuum technology, gas kinetics, adsorption, surface diffusion and nucleation. These are the fundamental features which determine the film growth and the ultimate film properties. Common thin-film characterization methods which measure film composition and structure as well as mechanical and electrical properties are also covered. This course is for senior physics students with an interest in pursuing a career in industry.

This course covers the principles of statistics in relation to biophysics and bio soft materials. It focuses on: modeling of biomacromolecular structure and statistical complexities; molecular mechanics of biomolecules; statistical models for structural transitions in biopolymers, statistical physical description of structural transitions in macromolecules, simulation of macromolecular structure, structural transitions in polypeptides and proteins; coil-helix transitions; prediction of protein secondary and tertiary structures; statistics of structural transitions in polynucleotides and DNA; modeling of non-regular structures of biomacromolecules. This course is targeted at both physics and non-physics students who already have basic knowledge in physics, thermodynamics and molecular biology.

This is a new course which aims to highlight the relevance and importance of physics in many aspects of technology. It aims to serve as the overview course to expose the students to a few key technological development when Physics plays a vital role. This course will be conducted by our own lecturers. The selected topics will be current and directly relevant to the potential career options that the MSc students will be considering. Discussion of each topic shall cover the basic physics principles leading to the state of the art development in the technology. The duration on each topic can last from 2 weeks to 3 weeks. Examples of the topics include energy and batteries, solar energy systems, quantum technologies, computer modelling in Physics, sensor devices, communication systems, microelectronics, advanced functional materials, biophysical instruments, etc.

This is a required course for all research Masters and PhD students admitted from AY2004/2005. The main purpose of this course is to help graduate students to improve their presentation skills and to participate in scientific seminars/exchanges in a professional manner. The activities of this course include giving presentations during the lecture hours and attending seminars organised by the Department. Students are also required to write summaries of some departmental seminars attended. The grade of this course will be “Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory” based on student’s talk presentations, participation of seminars and the summary writing.

This course presents an introduction to phase transitions and fluctuations. For phase transitions, the course starts with the treatment of Landau and mean field. Exact Ising model results are then discussed. Critical exponents are introduced and their relations obtained using the scaling hypothesis and Kadanoff’s scheme. Real space renormalization is then used to show how the critical exponents can be calculated. For fluctuations, Langevin, Fokker-Planck equations will be used. Time dependence and fluctuation dissipation theorem then follow. Brownian motion will be used as an example. This course is targeted at physics graduate students with at least one year of statistical mechanics.

Spintronics is the study of the intrinsic spin of the electron and its application in spin-logic and devices, spin-polarized injection devices, and storage media. This is important for a variety of current and emerging applications in magnetic memories. This course equips students with essential knowledge of magnetism, and exchange interactions in solids; half metals, and dilute magnetic semiconductors; spin injection, transport and detection; and magnetic nanostructures, and their applications in: GMR read-write heads, MRAM, spinFET, spin-torque oscillators.

This course provides an introduction to surface physics for graduate and year-4 undergraduate students major in physics, chemistry and materials science and engineering. It covers the properties of solid surfaces, experimental techniques and applications. The topics include the importance of surfaces in science & technology, surface crystallography and topography, surface energy and stress, surface electronic properties (surface states, work function, band bending and Fermi level pining at semiconductor surface/interface, magnetism), surface phonon and plasmon, adsorption, desorption and reaction on surfaces. The applications of basic surface science knowledge in semiconductor technology, materials growth and processing, heterogeneous catalysis, nanoscience and thin film technology will be demonstrated. Experimental techniques, such as XPS, UPS, AES, LEED, STM, AFM, SIMS, EELS, TPD and vacuum technology, will be addressed with examples and applications. To take this course, students should have a basic knowledge of quantum physics, thermodynamics and solid state physics.

This advanced course presents the fundamentals of classical electrodynamics in much depth. It covers the following topics: Maxwell’s equations to define conservations laws for energy and momentum, properties of electromagnetic waves, light scattering from interfaces, the concept of optical dispersion, and investigate how waves propagate in bounded structures such as waveguides and transmission lines. In depth investigations of radiation by moving charges, special relativity from Maxwell’s equations such as relativistic length contraction, and covariant formulation of E&M. An understand of applications ranging satellites to fiber optics to transmon qubit would be related to E&M. A good mathematical foundation is required.

This course discusses the molecules in cells and the physics behind their functions. At the core is the understanding of biomolecular conformations, structural stability and interactions under physical constraints such as force, geometry and temperature, by theory and state-of-art experimental technologies. Besides homework and quiz, projects are an important component of assignments. Multiple projects are provided for students to choose, which may involve numerical/Monte Carlo simulation of biomolecular conformations, analysis of experimental data, or investigation of the DNA micromechanics by analyzing DNA conformations. This course is targeted at students who have a basic knowledge in general physics and thermodynamics.

Covers computational techniques for the solution of problems arising in physics and engineering, with an emphasis on molecular simulation and modelling. Topics will be from the text, “Numerical Recipes”, Press et al, supplemented with examples in materials and condensed matter physics. This course insures that graduate students intending to do research in computational physics will have sufficient background in computational methods and programming experience.

This course will introduce a phenomenological description of superconducting materials and their applications to modern technologies. For this, the course will cover bulk and thin-film superconducting materials and introduce the Josephson junction, which is the basis of many superconducting devices. From this, we will introduce the main parameters that are relevant to the design of modern superconducting devices, namely resonators, qubits, SQUIDs and photodetectors. Finally, we will cover how the choice of materials and geometry influences the functioning of these devices.

The course provides an introduction to quantum information and quantum computation. In addition to physics majors, the course addresses students with a good background in discrete mathematics or computer science.The following topics will be covered: (1) Introduction: a brief review of basic notions of information science (Shannon entropy, channel capacity) and of basic quantum kinematics with emphasis on the description of multi-qubit systems and their discrete dynamics. (2) Quantum information: Entanglement and its numerical measures, separability of multi-partite states, quantum channels, standard protocols for quantum cryptography and entanglement purification, physical implementations. And (3) Quantum computation: single-qubit gates, two-qubit gates and their physical realization in optical networks, ion traps, quantum dots, Universality theorem, quantum networks and their design, simple quantum algorithms (Jozsa-Deutsch decision algorithm, Grover search algorithm, Shor factorization algorithm). The course is tightly integrated with IBM quantum computer hands-on experience via IBM Q Experience cloud services. Students will learn fundamentals of Qiskit, a modern and rapidly developing quantum computer programming language, by directly implementing concepts learnt in the classroom.

This course exposes graduate students to examples of Machine Learning and Data Science that are commonly encountered in data analyses in the Physical Sciences (e.g. optics, statistical physics, condensed matter, biological physics). We will take a hands-on approach to
implementing, training, and evaluating machine learning models. This course will be taught in the Python programming language. Prior experience in any programming language will be helpful.

Much of our real world data are manifestations or measurements of their underlying complex interactions. Hence, modelling and analysis of the underlying complex systems can reveal understandings and predictions that complement black-box machine learning tools. This course will cover the basic concepts and tools in analysing complex systems and simulation models, and more importantly why and when we need such white-box tools derived from statistical physics. Certain key concepts in complexity science will be intrudcued. It will also provide hands-on experience with system analysis and imulation
modelling in Python.

In this course, the physics behind a wide spectrum of modern sensors is covered, capturing basic properties like temperature, distance, forces, pressure, magnetic fields, and light that are relevant in everyday applications, as well as more advanced sensors for acceleration and rotation that became commonplace in mobile devices for orientation and navigation. Furthermore, advanced sensing techniques used in microbalances, particle detection and advanced optical and acoustic sensing techniques will be discussed.

This course introduces the basic building blocks for the theory of quantum measurements. With this detailed knowledge, a rigorous discussion of measurement models, the von Neumann model in particular, error-disturbance relations, incompatibility of measurements, and sequential measurements becomes possible. During the introduction of these concepts, the students will also acquire knowledge in operational quantum theory as well as become fluent in the mathematical framework of Hilbert space quantum mechanics.

After this course, the students will master and be knowledgeable in the mathematics and operational meaning of the basic concepts of quantum measurements. This knowledge will make them able to understand key quantum physical concepts like uncertainty and error and disturbance in measurements.

This course aims to give graduate students additional training in the foundations of solid state physics and is intended to prepare them for research work and other graduate coursework courses. Topics to be covered include: translational symmetry and Bloch’s theorem, rotational symmetry and group representation, electron-electron interaction and Hartree-Fock method, pseudopotential and LCAO schemes of energy band calculations, Boltzmann equation and thermoelectric phenomena, optical properties of semiconductors, insulators and metals, origin of ferromagnetism, models of Heisenberg, Stoner and Hubbard, Kondo effect. Berry phase and topological insulators.