Course Announcements:

12/12: All solutions are now posted and final grades are available via EEE. I will submit grades to the registrar at noon on Wednesday, 12/14; any requests for modifications or regrades must occur by then. Graded homework sets may be picked up from Marie Tonini in RH220B. It was a pleasure to have you all in class, and have a good break!

Course Information:

Instructor: Sid Parameswaran, Assistant Professor

310J Rowland Hall, sidp_at_uci.edu

Lectures: Monday/Wednesday 8:00AM - 8:20 PM, Reines 2111. Note the change in time!

Office Hours: Tuesdays, 11:00AM-12:00PM, Rowland 310J.

Overview:

This is the first in a three-course graduate sequence on condensed matter physics. Roughly, this quarter we will learn about the structure of matter, chemical bonding, and crystal structures, apply that knowledge to understand lattice vibrations in solids and the electronic properties of materials via Bloch's theorem, and learn basic elements of the theory of metals, insulators and semiconductors. Throughout, we will use tools from quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics to explain basic phenomena of the solid state. Modern topics that may be covered if time permits include topological insulators, quasicrystals, and the basics of the quantum Hall effect.

Prerequisites:

As this is an upper-level graduate course, you are expected and will need to be familiar with quantum and statistical mechanics and electrodynamics at the level of our own first-year coursework. If you have not taken these courses, or are taking them concurrently, but still would like to attend the lectures or sign up for the class, please contact me beforehand. As in all courses and particularly advanced ones, you will get as much out of this class as you put in to it - so keep up with the homework and readings!

Textbook(s):

Condensed matter is a vast subject and there are many books that do a reasonably good job of presenting the basics. The course will more or less follow The Oxford Solid State Basics by Steve Simon - i.e., this is the required text. Although the book is slightly less advanced than is ideal (it is intended for an advanced undergraduate course at Oxford), it more than makes up for this in humor, modernity, and above all, style. The lectures may therefore be a little more advanced to compensate, and I may supplement the basic material with suggested reading.

I strongly recommend purchasing or otherwise having access to the now-classic Solid State Physics by N.W. Ashcroft and N.D. Mermin; this is a canonical textbook that often proves to be useful beyond the classroom. Previous versions of 238A used M.P. Marder's Condensed Matter Physics, so you might want to have that handy as well. Finally, there are older books that you might find illuminating: Principles of the Theory of Solids by J.M. Ziman, and Quantum Theory of Solids by C. Kittel. Steve Simon's book also contains a brief list of other texts with comments on their pros and cons, which you might find useful.

Lecture Notes and Course Outline:

I will post my handwritten notes, but I suggest that you take notes in class - particularly as this is an advanced course, I hope there will be a fair amount of discussion in 'real time' that you might like to have a record of. I will post a rough outline of the lectures one week before classes start; this will be updated to reflect what is actually covered.

Brief primer on basic statistical mechanics (from Feynman's book).

Pines & Laughlin's article on emergence.

Course Overview

1. Specific Heat of Solids
2. Electrons in Metals (Ashcroft & Mermin Appendix on the Sommerfeld expansion)
3. Basic Chemistry of the Solid State
4. Types of Matter
5. Toy Models of Solids in d=1
6. Electrons in d=1, tight-binding, Peierls distortion
7. Geometry of solids; crystal structure
8. Reciprocal lattice, Brillouin zones, waves in crystals
9. Neutron and X-Ray Diffraction
10. Electrons in Periodic Potentials I: Nearly Free Electrons
11. Electrons in Periodic Potentials II: Bloch's Theorem
12. Graphene Basics
13. Semiconductor Physics & Devices
14. Semiclassical Electron Dynamics
    1. 'Quantum Oscillations' [covered partially]
    2. Landau Levels and the (Integer) Quantum Hall Effect [was not covered in lecture]
15. Topology in Solids: An Introduction [covered partially]

If you prefer a single large file with all the lectures, here is the combined PDF (warning, 195 pages, file size~25MB).

Here is a rough schedule of lectures. Some topics may bleed into subsequent lectures.

Warning: this is subject to change without notice as the class progresses.

Special Lectures: I will be spending time at a conference during the first two full weeks of the quarter and will only be at UCI one day per week. I plan to hold make-up classes at the following dates and times: (in FRH 2111 unless otherwise specified)

Friday, September 23, 8:00-9:20 & 9:30-10:50 (in place of lectures week of 9/26)

Friday, September 30, 8:00-9:20 (in place of lectures for Wednesday, 10/5)

[No single date/time worked for everyone, so this was the optimal solution. If you are unable to make the special lectures, I will hold extended office hours to work with you and go over the material covered in the lectures.]

Friday, October 21, 8:00-9:20 (in place of lectures for Wednesday, 10/12)

Friday, December 2, 8:00-9:20 (in place of lecture for Wednesday, 11/23)

Sep. 23 (lecture 1): Overview; Specific heat of Solids, Einstein phonons. (special lecture)

Sep. 23 (lecture 2): Debye model of phonons; Electrons in metals: start Drude Model. (special lecture)

Sep. 26: No class (made up on 9/23)

Sep. 28: No class (made up on 9/23)

Sep. 30: Electrons in Metals: Drude Model, continued. (special lecture)

Oct. 3: Electrons in Metals: Sommerfeld theory.

Oct 5. No class (made up on 9/30)

Oct. 10: Periodic Table, Chemical Bonding

Oct 12. No class (made up 10/21) PS#1 Due.

Oct 17: Finish chemical bonding; Types of Matter; start toy models of solids

Oct. 19: Toy Models of Solids in d=1; simple models of compressibility, expansion, melting.

Oct. 20: Department colloquium on 2016 Nobel Prize -- attend if you would like to hear about recent advances in condensed matter physics.

Oct 21: Vibrations of a 1D Monoatomic Chain: a first look at phonons. 1D Diatomic chain, Acoustic/optical modes. PS#2 Due

Oct. 24: Tight-binding models: a first look.

Oct. 26: Crystal structure. Reciprocal Lattice and Brillouin zones.

Oct. 31: PS#3 Due

Nov. 2: Neutron/X-Ray Diffraction; Start Nearly free electrons.

Nov. 7: Finish nearly free electrons;

Nov. 9: Bloch's theorem. Take-home posted on website on Wednesday, 8am

Nov. 14: Graphene. Take-Home Midterm Due in class; PS#4 Due, extensions are possible.

Nov. 16: Semiconductor Physics.

Nov. 21: Semiconductor devices. PS#5 Due

Nov. 23: Day before Thanksgiving, no class.

Nov. 28: Semiclassical dynamics; Measuring the Fermi surface; Shubnikov-de Haas and de Haas-van Alphen oscillations.

Nov. 30: Electrons in magnetic fields: Landau levels and the Quantum Hall Effect. PS#6 Due.

Dec. 2: Topological effects on semiclassical dynamics: Berry's phase in crystals. Chern insulators.

Dec 7. Final write-ups due via e-mail.

Problem Sets:

1. Problem Set 1, posted Friday, Sept. 30; due Wednesday, Oct. 12.

2. Problem Set 2, posted Saturday, Oct. 15; due Friday, Oct. 21.

3. Problem Set 3, posted Monday, Oct. 24; due Monday, Oct. 31.

4. Problem Set 4, posted Tuesday, Nov. 1; due Monday, Nov. 14.

5. Problem Set 5, posted Tuesday, Nov. 15; due Wednesday, Nov. 23.

6. Problem Set 6, posted Saturday, Nov. 26; due Friday, December 2. [In problem 2, when discussing δ and Δ I have actually rescaled units, so that there is an overall factor of 2m_e/hbar^2 left out of the definition --- these are the "natural" units for the problem.]

Take-Home Midterm (ignore the phrase "as a series of δ-functions" in Problem 3)

Solutions in PDF form available on request - please email me directly if you require these.

Final Project Topics

Grading:

Your grade will be based on the problem sets (50%), a take-home mid-term exam (25%) and a 10-minute presentation (Powerpoint or blackboard) and 4-5 page write-up (preferably in LaTeX format) on a condensed matter topic (25%). The topic of the presentation must be discussed with me beforehand; ideally, by Thanksgiving. I will post a list of suggested topics by the beginning of November, but you can come up with your own as well.