LEARNING OUTCOMES

Achieving a thorough understanding of the properties solids at the microscopic level. Students will master the concepts of crystal lattice, lattice dynamics, electronic band structure, dielectric response and electronic excitations, magnetic properties and excitations, as well as the origin of metallic, semiconductor and insulator behavior

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course explores the basic principles of solid materials explained at the microscopic level. It will introduce concepts about atomic order and arrangements, chemical bonding, atomic and electron dynamics in solids to understand the difference between metals, semiconductors, and insulators. Experiments will be performed to introduce important concepts as wavevector, frequency, interference, diffraction, photoemission, Hall effect.

PREREQUISITES

Basic knowledge in Quantum Mechanics

TEACHING METHODS

Mainly frontal lectures. Laboratory excercises will help the students to understand the concepts of crystal lattice, diffraction and resonance phenomena. The students will write reports on the experiments.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Content:

The course consists of frontal lectures as well as laboratory trainings

Theoretical part: frontal classes

Condensed Matter and Quantum mechanics:

• Failure of classical mechanics in the description of condensed matter.
• Properties associated with the discreteness of matter: normal modes and phonons.
• Concept of wavevector, its quantization in on the lattice and phonon density of states.
• The heat capacity of a solid: Einstein and Debye models.
• Chemical bonds, unit cell and symmetry properties.
• Concept of direct and reciprocal space.
• Probing the crystal lattice: scattering of electrons, neutrons and X rays off three and two-dimensional lattices.

The electronic and optical properties:

• Free electron gas in electric and magnetic fields.
• Fermi Dirac statistics and the specific heat of an electron gas.
• The Fermi energy, wavevector and surface of a solid.
• The band structure and the single particle approximation for the valence electrons.
• Dielectric response function, plasmon and surface plasmon.
• Photoemission spectroscopy and work function.
• The tight binding model: valence and conduction bands, metals, semiconductors and insulators. Electrons and holes , and their ffective mass.
• Doping of semiconductor, semiconductor junctions and devices.

Magnetism:

• The various magnetic properties of a solid: para, dia, ferri and ferro-magnetism.
• The magnetism of conduction electrons: Pauli paramagnetism and Landau diamagnetism.
• Magnetic anisotropy, magnetic domains and hysteresis.
• Understanding magnetism: Heisenberg Hamiltonian and Hubbard model for ferromagnetism.

Superconductivity:

• The superconducting state, critical temperature, current and magnetic field
• The mechanism of correlation: Cooper pairs and the formation of the energy gap
• BCS theory and the Bose condensate

Laboratory training:

• Vibrational properties of a swinging string and resonance properties of diapasons.
• The resonance conditions in electronic circuits.
• Diffraction of light from a one and a two dimensional lattice.
• Low energy electron diffraction from a crystalline surface.
• Measurement of the Hall effect.
• Measurement of the threshold frequency in photoemission.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lecture Notes for Solid State Physics, Steven Simon

“Solid State Physics: An Introduction to Principles of Material Science”, Harald Ibach, Hans Lueth, fourth Edition Springer Verlag