I am a college freshman who is looking to research in a experimental physics lab this year. I am an engineering student and have taken basic Physics classes, but I lack the background knowledge to fully understand what is going on with the topics this lab is researching (Rydberg atoms, Rydberg atom collisions, heavy-Rydberg-ion-states, etc.) I've tried looking for review papers but have mostly found things from the 80s, (some of which were written by the professor I hope to research with). What resources are good for a relative novice to learn about these things? Sorry if this question is too broad!
Asked
Active
Viewed 126 times
1 Answers
1
Wikipedia does a pretty good job at explaining the basics of this, in my opinion. Looking at review papers are very good for this and so are the papers(you can find the papers on sites like Pubmed and APS Journals). Just because the review papers are from the 80s, does not mean they are bad. Even if a tiny fraction of the information has changed it is still not bad. In fact, reading what the professor has written is probably one of the best things you can do, because you learn more about what he studies, more about the field and the quality of the papers he publishes. In addition to all of this, even though it may seem obvious, are books.
Benichiwa
- 268