Physics 576

Spring 2016

Introduction to Solid State Physics



Instructor: Dr./Prof. Jen Schwarz
Instructor's E-mail: phy576.spring2016@yahoo.com
Instructor's Phone: 607-342-0876
Instructor's Office: 105 Physics Building
Lectures:  Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:00-3:20PM in PB105
Required Texts: None required but you may want to look at The Oxford Solid State Basics by Steve Simon, whose lecture note version can be found here. Advanced Solid State Physics by Philip Phillips will be helpful for the second half of the course.
Office Hours:  Tuesdays and Thursdays 1:00-2:00PM

Course Syllabus
Course Poster


Course Schedule
Lecture 1 (1/19): Course Introduction and The Specific Heat of Solids; see image from Einstein's 1907 paper on the specific heat of solids here
Lecture 2 (1/21): Einstein versus Debye solids and the Drude theory of metals; see image from Debye's 1912 paper on the specific heat of solids here
Homework 1 due Friday, 1/29, at 2PM in PB201 (my mailbox)
Lecture 3 (1/26): Drude theory for electronic transport in metals; see Drude's paper here
Lecture 4 (1/28): Sommerfeld theory of electronic transport in metals
Homework 2 due Friday 2/5, at 2PM in PB201 (my mailbox)
Lecture 5 (2/4): Molecular bonding in a nutshell (ionic bonds and covalent bonds and the LCAO approach)
Lecture 6 (2/9): Vibrations of the one-dimensional monatomic chain
Lecture 7 (2/11): More on the vibrations of the one-dimensional monatomic chain and the diatomic chain
Homework 3 due Friday 2/20, at 2PM in PB201 (my mailbox)
Lecture 8 (2/16): Vibrations of the diatomic chain and electron waves in 1d solids
Lecture 9 (2/17): Tight-binding model; see one of the original papers on this model here
Lecture 10 (2/18): Kronig-Penney model; see original paper here
Lecture 11 (2/23): Crystal structures
Lecture 12 (2/25): Crystal structures and reciprocal lattices
Lecture 13 (3/1): Nearly free electron model and band theory I
Lecture 14 (3/3): Nearly free electron model and band theory II
Lecture 15 (3/8): In-class midterm
Spring Break
Lecture 16 (3/22): Semiconductor physics
Lecture 17 (3/24): Semiconductor devices I
Lecture 18 (3/29): Semiconductor devices II
Lecture 19 (3/31): Superconductivity phenomenology
Lecture 20 (4/5): Second quantization
Lecture 21 (4/6): More on second quantization
Lecture 22 (4/7): Phonon-mediated attraction between electrons
Lecture 23 (4/12): Cooper theory
Lecture 24 (4/14): BCS theory
Lecture 25 (4/19): Josephson junctions
Lecture 26 (4/21): Josephson junctions
Lecture 27 (4/26): Bosonization
Lecture 28 (4/28): Bosonization and localization
Lecture 29 (5/3): Localization and Kondo effect
Lecture 30 (5/4): Kondo effect and Glass transition
Lecture 31 (5/5): Glass transition and anyons
Lecture 32 (5/11): Quantum computation


Project papers: Localization
Bosonization
Glass transition
Kondo effect
Anyons