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Physics 171.621 and 171.405

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Course Details
Instructor
 		Prof. Oleg Tchernyshyov
 		olegt at jhu.edu
 		Bloomberg 323
 		6-8586
TA
 		Dennis Liang
 		dennis at pha.jhu.edu
 		Bloomberg 335
 		6-7832





Lectures
 		ThF 10:30 - 12:00
 		Bloomberg 361

Office
Hours 		Prof. Tchernyshyov
 		Thursday 1-2

Dennis Liang
 		TBA


Required Text
 		 
Solid-State Physics
 		Neil W. Ashcroft
D. David Mermin

The course grade will be determined as follows:
67%
 Homework
33%
 Presentation

Course syllabus (in PDF).

Important announcement!

  • The JHU Center for Educational Resources is conducting a survey designed to measure effectiveness of computer technologies in the classroom.  (Towards the end of the course I am planning to use some numerical simulations designed jointly with Jeff Wasserman and sponsored by the CER.)  Please take part in the online survey before Friday, November 5.  You will be asked to do that again (and hopefully demonstrate progress) after using the simulations. 
  • Please fill out the survey form one more time.  Here is the link: CER survey Part II.

Homework assignments

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader as some of the homeworks will be posted as PDF files. 
Get Adobe Acrobat Reader
  • Homework Set 1.  Problems 1, 2, and 7 in Chapter 4 of Ashcroft and Mermin.  Due date September 10.
  • Homework Set 2.  Problems 1, 2, and 3 in Chapter 5 of Ashcroft and Mermin.  Due date September 17.  As there will be no lecture on that day, put the homework in Dennis Liang's mailbox by 5 pm!
  • Homework Set 3.  Problems 1, 2, and 5 in Chapter 6.  Due date September 24. 
  • Homework Set 4.    Due date October 1.  Read Chapters 19 and 20 in Ashcroft and Mermin.
  • Homework Set 5.  Due date October 8.  Chapter 22, Porblems 22.2 and 22.3. 
  • Homework Set 6.  Due date October 15.
  • Homework Set 7.  Due date October 22.  Chapter 1.  Problems 1.1 and 1.2.
  • Homework Set 8.  Due date October 29.  Chapter 2 and Appendix C.
  • Homework Set 9.  Due date November 5.  Chapter 9.
  • Homework Set 10.  Due date November 12.  Chapters 12 and 14.  Problems 12.2 and 14.2.
  • Homework Set 11.  Due sate November 19.  Chapter 17. 
  • Homework Set 12.  Due date December 3.  Chapter 28.  Problems 28.1 and 28.2. 
  • Homework Set 13.  Due date December 10.  The Ising applet is here.

Presentations

Instead of an exam we will hold a mini-conference during the exam week (December 10-17). 

Your talk should be 20 minutes long: 15 minutes for the presentation  and 5 minutes for questions from the audience.  A computer presentation (e.g. in PowerPoint format) is most convenient.  However, transparencies can be used as well.  If  you choose an electronic format be sure to send me a copy at least one day prior to your talk.  I will bring a laptop and a media projector. 

Guidelines for choosing a topic:
  1. The topic of  your talk must be related to condensed matter physics.
  2. It should cover an experimental work done in the last 10 years.
  3. You must be able to explain the essential physics behind it.
A good place to start looking for a topic is the News and Views section of the journal Nature.  These articles are written at an accessible level and contain references to more authoritative papers (which you should feel free to read). 

Nature is available online.  You can access it either from the campus network or remotely via a proxy server RAUL.

Presentation details:

Thursday, December 16:
  • R. Car, How hard spheres stack up, Nature 385, 115 (1997).  Presented by K. See.
  • A. de Lozanne, Music of the spheres at the atomic scale, Science 305, 348 (2004).  Presented by A. Mathur.
  • J. N. Hancock et al., Unusual low-energy phonon dynamics in the negative thermal expansion compound ZrW2O8, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 225501 (2004).  Presented by A. Concha.
  • C. A. Regal, M. Greiner, and D.S. Jin, Observation of resonance condensation of fermionic atom pairs, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 040403 (2004).  Presented by H. Youk.
  • A. Ney, C. Pampuch, R. Koch, and K.H. Ploog, Programmable computing with a single magnetoresistive element, Nature 425, 485 (2003).  Presented by L. Zhu.
  • M. A. Baldo, D. F. O'Brien, M. E. Thompson, and S. R. Forrest, Excitonic singlet-triplet ratio in a semiconducting organic thin film, Phys. Rev. B 60, 14 422 (1999).  Presented by M. McEvoy.
  • M.E. Flatte, Semiconductor physics: Relativity on a chip, Nature 427, 21 (2004).  Presented by Ed Nissen.
Friday, December 17:
  • C. T. White and J. W. Mintmire, Density of states reflects diameter in nanotubes, Nature 394, 29 (1998).  Presented by P. Mellado.
  • E.D. Minot, Y. Yalsh, V. Sazonova, and P. L. McEuen, Determination of electron orbital magnetic moments in carbon nanotubes, Nature 428, 536 (2004).  Presented by Yi Dong.
  • D. Josell, D. Wheeler, W. H. Huber, and T. P. Moffat, Superconformal electrodeposition in submicron features, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87,  016102 (2001).  Presented by L. Guo.
  • E. Kim and M.H.W. Chan, Probable observation of a supersolid helium phase, Nature 427, 225 (2004).  Presented by M. Schmidt.
  • L.V. Butov, C.W. Lai, A.L. Ivanov, A.C. Gossard, and D.S. Chemla, Towards Bose-Einstein condensation of excitons in potential traps, Nature, 417, 47 (2002).  Presented by V. Stanev.
  • V. P. LaBella et al., Microscopic view of a two-dimensional lattice-gas Ising system within the grand canonical ensemble, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 4152 (2000).  Presented by J. Su.
  • Q. Ouyang and J.-M. Flesselles, Transition from spirals to defect turbulence driven by a convective instability, Nature 379, 143 (1996).  Presented by H. Guo.

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