PH3224

• Course calendar  (click here)

• Lecture notes

• Module 1

• Module 2

• Module 3

• Module 4

• Exam

• Course Content

There will be a total of five modules

01 Module: Crystals and Crystal Structures (8 lectures) §

• Understanding of Bravais lattices (only the essential concepts needed to advance further)

• Five Bravais lattices in 2D and fourteen Bravais lattices in 3D

• Examples of some common crystal structures; the distinction between diamond and zincblende; NaCl and CsCl structure types 

• Reciprocal lattice

• Reciprocal lattice to Direct lattice, the Brillouin zone, Wigner Seitz construction 

• Laue condition and Bragg’s law of diffraction from a lattice 

• Examples of X-ray diffraction (powder/Laue/Ewald construction)

 02 Module: Lattice vibrations (6 lectures) §

• Types of bonds and bonding mechanisms 

• Lattice waves in monatomic and diatomic chains, and the energy/momentum dispersion or E-k diagram 

• Lattice specific heat: Debye model and Einstein model) 

• Lattice thermal conductivity (Umklapp processes)

• An introduction to How phonon dispersion is measured (Inelastic neutron scattering) 

03 Module Electrons in metals and semiconductors (9 lectures) §

• Free electron gas - Drude model, its successes and failures

• Free electrons gas – acknowledging its quantum nature & need to go further

• Nearly free electron gas or electron gas in a weak periodic potential

• Bloch’s theorem

• Tight binding model

• Band structure of Solids (examples and experiments)

04 Module: Magnetism (7 lectures) §

• Magnetism (Pauli paramagnetism versus paramagnetism of spins on a lattice – the Curie behavior)

• Types of magnetic interactions

• Mean-field theory of ferromagnetism (Curie-Weiss law)

• Antiferromagnetism and Ferrimagnetism

• Topological Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless or BKT transition  

05 Module Some Advanced applications (5 lectures) § 

• Fermi Surface and Landau Quantization 

• Integer quantum Hall effect

• Introduction to quantum point contact

• Superconductivity (a very brief introduction so that you do not feel completely left out while attending a research seminar on superconductors, or when you once in a while come across superconductivity in some other courses or contexts -- for example, Bose-Einstein condensation in quantum optics. A more complete course on superconductivity as a modular course is floated by the physics department for the Phd students which those of you who are interested can take.    

§ Depending on several factors, these numbers may change

• Books and other reference material

BOOKS

There are many good textbooks covering most of the topics under modules 01 to 04 including:

(a) Introduction to Solid State Physics by Charles Kittel (covers all topics in sufficient detail with emphasis/examples on/of real materials)

(b) Solid State Physics by Ashcroft and Mermin (more advanced, with a rigorous and clear treatment of all the concepts. The experimental probes are dealt with in sufficient detail with plenty of examples from the world of materials.)  

(c) The Oxford Solid State Basics by Steven. H. Simon (a basic text with a clear and simplified treatment, highly recommended for beginners). However, the order in which the topics appear is different from (a) and (b), and hence is also different from the sequence we will follow, which is more in line with (a). Well, this may not look serious, but it can be (is) sometimes (often) problematic. 

ONLINE RESOURCES

Online lectures by Prof. Steven Simon, the author of textbook (c), are highly recommended)

https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/oxford-solid-state-basics

Online lectures on basic solid-state physics (more in line with and at the level of our course). Part of the ICTP postgraduate Diploma program

Solid State Physics lectures by Prof. Sandro Scandolo  

Set of more advanced lecture notes on Solid State Physics by Prof. David Tong

https://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/solidstate.html

Lecture notes on Quantum Condensed Matter Physics by Prof. Benjamin Simon

https://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~bds10/grad_lec.html

• EVALUATION CRITERIA

-       Continuous evaluation which includes 8-10 homework assignments and 02 quizzes will           0constitute 30% weightage towards the final marks

-        Midsem will contribute 35%

-        Endsem will contribute 35%

Note: The endsem exam will cover only the material taught after the midsem. Regarding homework assignments, each will contain 4-5 simple questions. The purpose of the assignments is not to burden you with extra work, but to ensure that you are keeping up with the course.