Advanced Undergraduate Laboratory

Department of Physics

University of Toronto

HEL: Helicons in Metals

Normally, electromagnetic waves cannot propagate through a conductor, but this experiment uses a particular form of circularly polarized EM-wave transmitted through high-purity indium to measure the Hall coefficient and resistivity in a novel way. These "helicon" waves were first discovered in the ionosphere, where they are known as "whistlers", but they also exist in metals. This experiment is both a study of electromagnetic waves and an investigation of the electrical properties of indium.


Write-Up in PDF Format or Microsoft Word Format .

(The experiment is currently located in MP226; last write-up revision: May 2012.)

Additional resources:

Photo of student working on Helicons experiment

Chang-Yu Hsieh, 3 rd year Engineering Sciences undergraduate, works on “Helicons in Metals”.

Last updated on 19 December 2017