AIP Publishing makes associated research freely available to boost the initiative’s teaching and learning power.
When Urja Nandivada, a graduate student in Physics Education Research, and Jim Martin, an Associate Professor, both at the University of Waterloo in Canada, presented the instructional video they created as a teaching resource to the annual Ontario Association of Physics Teachers conference this May, the audience was also be able to freely access the 1996 The Journal of Chemical Physics (JCP) research article on which the video is based, thanks to the support of AIP Publishing.
“We are delighted to support an initiative that showcases the long-lasting impact of the research The Journal of Chemical Physics publishes, as well as makes science more accessible and inclusive, and develops the next generation of scientists,” said JCP Editor in Chief Tianquan (Tim) Lian, Ph.D., Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. “The cited half-life of JCP articles is nearly 19 years, which means that scientists are utilizing the research published in JCP for decades after publication. We are proud to be the journal that our community trusts with their foundational research.” The experiment was initially documented in a Journal of Chemical Physics article, “The nondestructive detection of the helium dimer and trimer,” by Wieland Schöllkopf and T. Peter Toennies.
The video introduces a key first-year physics lab experiment — the existence of the Helium dimer using matter-wave diffraction — by performing it in an engaging and enjoyable way. It demonstrates the existence of the elusive helium “molecule” using a surprising application of matter-wave interference. Their collaboration employed Urja’s work with an ultrafast laser and frequency doubling crystal, and Jim’s with matter-wave interferometry. Using the pulses of an ultrafast laser, the wavicles duo surf a de Broglie wavelength through a diffraction grating showing how the helium molecule was observed using a striking optical analogy.
“We created this video from our own conversations about physics that we like, starting from ‘hey, do you like this paper?’ to ‘isn’t it cool that we can show properties of atoms using principles of light?’ To share our enjoyment with others, we wanted to make something that shows how much fun physics is, especially at the research level. We would love to know if educators can find a place for the video in their courses, so we developed a related set of questions to encourage curious minds to continue to explore the concepts we present. Those interested but outside of academia can also access these freely available resources,” explained Urja.
“By offering content and resources in varied formats, we would like to reach as many physics learners as we can. We are grateful to AIP Publishing and the Journal of Chemical Physics for offering unfettered access to the original research to people who would otherwise not have access to it,” continued Jim.
The collaboration is an excellent example of how AIP Publishing’s commitment to the scientific community is multi-faceted and extends to students, teachers, researchers, and scholarly societies around the world. In addition to its contribution to the University of Waterloo video initiative, AIP has a long-standing partnership with the conference’s community partner, the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). Together they publish two journals, American Journal of Physics (AJP) and The Physics Teacher (TPT), which include additional papers closely related to the video’s subject “Quantum interference experiments with large molecules, and “Single-, double-, and triple-slit diffraction of molecular matter waves.” AAPT also offers an expansive library of videos that can be accessed via the following two links: AJP videos, TPT videos.