Quick and Dirty Preview of Solid State Physics
JHU Seal Quick and Dirty Preview of Solid State Physics

Jeffrey Wasserman
Second Year Seminar
Presented April 9, 2002
Johns Hopkins University

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Table of Contents

  1. Presentation Title
  2. What is Solid State Physics?
  3. What does Solid State Physics entail?
  4. Relative Importance of Solid State Physics
  5. Why is there interest in Solid State Physics?
  6. Historical Approach Part I - The Drude Model
  7. Successes of the Drude Model
  8. Historical Approach Part II - The Sommerfeld Model
  9. Inadequacies of the Drude and Sommerfeld Models
  10. Crystals and Lattices
  11. More About Lattices
  12. Reciprocal Lattice
  13. X-Ray Diffraction and Scattering from Lattices
  14. Effects of the Periodicity of the Lattice
  15. Bloch Waves and Brillouin Zones
  16. Brillouin Zones in Three Dimensions
  17. The Fermi Energy and the Fermi Surface
  18. The Nearly-Free Electron Gas
  19. Illustration of Nearly-Free Electron Gas in 1 Dimension
  20. Nearly-Free Electron Gas and Conductivity
  21. Nearly-Free Electron Gas in Aluminum
  22. Tightly-Bound Electrons - Overview
  23. Tightly-Bound Electrons and Band Structure
  24. Further Topics and Applications
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To recap the above slide, solid-state physicists have a two-fold goal. Firstly, they want to be able to provide a valid theoretical model which adequately explains observed effects of solids. For example, conductivity, elasticity, heat capacity, etc. Construction of valid theories has proven to not be as straight forward as expected, and in many cases only approximations or very simple situations can be solved exactly. This is due to the LARGE number of particles being considered, and the relative interactions amongs these particles makes calculations become VERY complicated.

The second aim of solid-state physicists is to figure out how to exploit properties of solids for something useful. For example, detailed study of band-structure led to development of PN-junction, which led to invetion of the transistor, of which there are now several varieties (bipolar-junction transistors, junction FETs, Metal-Oxide Semiconducting FETs, Modulation-Doped FETs, Pseudomorphic High-Electron Mobility Transisters, etc). Study of band structure also led to the ability to create a population inversion in a III-V material for the lasing process to be possible for the laser diode. Peltier coolers, often used on CCDs and microprocessors, have been invented by studying phonon interactions of solids.