Xueba's Sea of ​​Stars

Chapter 304 Electrical and Electronic Instruments

"My school experience is not the same as yours. I was admitted to Yichun Teachers College, which was not a school with a very good physics major. At that time, I had a senior brother who could be said to be very important to my future academic career. had a huge impact."

In the office, academician Chen Xianhui was sitting on the sofa and slowly telling his story to Wu Bin.

"At that time, he had experienced many majors, such as laser, condensed matter physics, theoretical physics, and surface physics. It can be said that he has learned formulas, compiled software, drawn drawings by himself, and processed mechanical plenums."

"But why do you think he has to deal with so many majors?" Academician Chen Xianhui suddenly asked Wu Bin with a smile.

"Curiosity? Or... like to try?" Wu Bin replied after thinking for a while.

After hearing this, Chen Xianhui shook his head, "It's because many people's motivations for studying at that time were not so pure, including my senior brother."

Seeing Wu Bin with an inexplicable expression, Chen Xianhui continued with a smile: "We were college students in the early 80s, life was different then, and in our university, except for a few from very well-to-do families, many students suffered from starvation. You can’t expect a starving student to have lofty ideals. So he wanted to go abroad when he was an undergraduate, because he can have enough food to go abroad.”

"As for why I am suddenly telling you this, in addition to wanting you to understand that the superior scientific research environment is hard-won, I also want to share with you why this senior's later experience will have a huge impact on my academic career."

Hearing this, Wu Bin couldn't help but feel a little flattered. Not only is a Da Niu academician unassuming, he even shared his experience on the road of scientific research with him, which couldn't be more friendly to the people.

"I have met many students of all kinds during my years at HKUST, but I have never seen someone as special as you. This specialness not only refers to your academic excellence, but also to your lack of The confusion that many undergraduates feel.”

After taking a sip of hot tea, Academician Chen Xianhui continued: "Just like your speech at your own graduation ceremony, seeking knowledge independently is a concept that many freshmen cannot adapt to for a while, but from your resume, But I don't see any discomfort when you first entered college, on the contrary, you feel like a fish in water."

"Later, Academician Pan told me that you planned to study in China, which made me feel that you are special. This special feeling even makes me feel that being your tutor is very stressful."

Wu Bin quickly waved his hand and said, "Professor, you are serious."

"Not heavy, not heavy." Chen Xianhui shook his head: "What is the purpose of the teacher? It is to teach students to become talents, but you are already a very good talent, so how can you make students like you better? It puts me under a lot of pressure. To be honest, this is the first time a student can bring me this kind of trouble, and it is also a rare and novel experience for me.”

Wu Bin: "Professor, what you said made me feel a lot of pressure. Really, my calves are shaking now."

"Hahaha." Academician Chen Xianhui laughed twice, "This effect is what you want, let me see how you plan to turn this pressure into ten times the motivation."

After laughing, Academician Chen Xianhui said seriously: "When my brother was studying condensed matter physics, the entire university had only one X-ray machine, which was an instrument from the Department of Earth and Space Science. It can be said that the conditions for doing condensed matter at that time were really high. Very bad."

"At that time, he felt that the poor conditions of condensed matter physics would definitely not work, so he quickly tried to transfer to a Ph.D. in theoretical physics, but before he got his Ph.D. in theoretical physics, he got another one and went to Germany. The opportunity to study a doctorate in experimental physics, as I said earlier, for this senior, going abroad is his biggest purpose for studying in university, so he decisively chose to go to Germany."

"After that, we often exchanged letters. He told me that his supervisor had four STMs (scanning tunneling microscopes) in his laboratory at that time, but the STMs at that time were actually very rough. After a week, luck is enough It may not be possible to scan out two pictures."

"But my senior brother didn't know at the time. His mentor gave him four experimental directions and asked him to consider choosing one. But he didn't understand the four experimental directions. After all, the experimental conditions in China were too bad before. He's done neither."

"So he could only ask one of his German brothers. The German brother said that there is a very old surface analysis instrument, which is photoelectron spectroscopy plus some plasma plus mass spectrometry. The previous brother has already worked on it. You haven’t graduated in six or seven years, as long as you don’t choose it, everything else is fine.”

"So the next day, he went directly to my mentor and told him that the other three are fine, as long as he doesn't choose the old surface analysis instrument."

"puff……"

Hearing this, Wu Bin couldn't help laughing out loud, this is too straightforward...

Hearing Wu Bin's laughter, Academician Chen Xianhui also shook his head and said: "Yes, until now, every time we talk about this matter, he will laugh at himself for being too stupid."

"You can imagine how speechless his mentor was when he heard it, so he said to him directly, 'Then you choose this old one.'"

"He was so depressed that he wrote three letters in a week to express how painful he was, but after a while he suddenly stopped writing, until three months later, I wondered if he would When I was forced to drop out of school, I received a letter from him again."

“In the letter, he told me how much of an impact the old instruments had on him, because we had almost never played with the instruments in China, so he still used the method of studying theoretical physics, first looking for relevant textbooks, and studying in one breath I took a nine-volume German version of "Electrical Engineering and Electronics" back to my dormitory to read."

"As a result, there is a sentence in the preface of that book that has had a great impact on him and me. Today, I will teach you this sentence."

"All electrical and electronic instruments are nothing more than outputting current and voltage in some way."

After hearing this sentence, Wu Bin suddenly fell into deep thought.

"Can you understand?" Academician Chen Xianhui asked Wu Bin.

"I can probably understand a little bit." Wu Bin nodded.

"Okay, then you explain."

"It's almost like when you encounter an electrical and electronic instrument, don't care what its name is, such as STM, AFM, photoelectron spectroscopy, etc. Anyway, they just output current and voltage in a certain way."

"Good understanding!" Academician Chen Xianhui clapped his hands, "That's right, in fact, the map we got in the laboratory is just the current and voltage output by a certain instrument, then you know... what does this represent?"

(End of this chapter)