Course Content (Syllabus)
Module 1 (4 hours): 1 Chemical Bonding in Solids, The periodic table of the elements, covalent-, Ionic - , metallic -, hydrogen- and van der Waals Bond .
Module 2 (4 hours): Dynamics of Atoms in Crystals 1: Crystal potential, equation of motion, monoatomic and diatomic linear chain.
Module 3 (4 hours): Dynamics of Atoms in Crystals 2: Scattering from time-varying structures, phonon spectroscopy, elastic properties of crystals. Experimental setup Raman Spectroscopy. Problems.
Module 4 (4 hours): Thermal properties 1: Density of States, thermal energy of a harmonic oscillator, specific heat capacity. Problems.
Module 5a (2 hours): Thermal properties 2: Effects due to anharmonicity, thermal expansion, heat conduction by phonons.
Module 5b (2 hours): The "Free" electrons in solids 1: The Free-Electron Gas in an Infinite Square-Well Po-tential, Fermi Gas at T = 0 K.
Module 6 (4 hours): The " free" electrons in solids 2: Fermi statistics, specific heat capacity of electrons in metals, electrostatic screening in a Fermi Gas -the Mott Transition, thermionic Emission of electrons from Metals. Problems.
Module 7 (4 hours): The electronic Bandstructure of Solids 1: General symmetry properties, nearly free-electron approximation, Problems.
Module 8a (4 hours): The electronic Bandstructure of Solids 2: Tight-binding approximation, examples of bandstructures, Density of states - in crystalline and in Non-Crystalline solids, Photo-emission Spectroscopy.
Module 8b (2 hours): Motion of Electrons and Transport Phenomena 1: Motion of electrons in bands and the effective Mass, currents in bands and holes, scattering of electrons in bands, Problems.
Module 9a (4 hours): Motion of Electrons and Transport Phenomena 2: Boltzmann equation and relaxation time, electrical conductivity of metals, thermoelectric effect, Wiedemann-Franz law, electrical conductivity of localized electrons., Problems.
Module 10 (4 hours): Optical properties of Solids 1: Dielectric Function, absorption of electromagnetic radiation, dielectric function for a harmonic oscillator, longitudinal and transverse normal modes, surface waves on a Dielectric. Problems.
Module 10 (4 hours): Optical properties of Solids 2: Local Field, polarization catastrophe and ferroelectrics, free-electron Gas, interband transitions, excitons, dielectric energy Losses of Electrons. Experimental setups: Infrared Spectroscopy, The Frustrated Total Reflection Method. Problems.
Module 12 (4 hours): Semiconductors 1: Bandstructure of important semiconductors, charge carrier density in intrinsic Semiconductors, doping of semiconductors. Problems.
Module 13 (4 hours): Semiconductors 2: Conductivity of semiconductors, p-n Junction and the Met-al/Semiconductor Schottky Contact, Semiconductor Heterostructures and Superlattices. Experimental setups: Hall effect, Cyclotron Resonance in Semiconductors,
Keywords
Chemical Bonding in Solids, Dynamics of Atoms in Crystals, monoatomic and diatomic linear chain, Thermal properties, Effects due to anharmonicity, "Free" electrons in solids, Mott Transition, electronic Bandstructure of Solids, Tight-binding approximation, effective Mass, currents in bands Motion of Electrons and Transport Phenomena, Wiedemann-Franz law, Optical properties of Solids, surface waves on a Dielectric, free-electron Gas, interband transitions, excitons, p-n Junction, Semiconductor Heterostructures, Met-al/Semiconductor Schottky Contact