Solid State Materials

Catalog description

The main course objective is to present fundamental concepts and models to develop students' quantitative understanding of mechanical, electrical, optical, and thermal phenomena in solid-state materials. Emphasis is placed not only on the discussion of material properties, but also on building a comprehensive understanding of how structure affects properties in solid state materials and vice versa. An overview of quantum mechanics is given and applied to understanding confinement effects and their implication for electronic and optical properties in nanostructured materials. It is further used to provide a solid foundation for understanding LCAO, MO theory, and tight binding approximations as powerful tools towards a modern understanding of structure property relationships in materials science, bridging all the way from the atomic scale of structure to macroscopic scale of properties. The course content is reinforced by utilizing interactive simulation programs. The structure and physical properties of most solids can be understood from fundamental building blocks developed in the last century, namely, crystal structure and symmetry of the organization of atomic nuclei in a solid, and the organization of electrons throughout this periodic Coulombic potential generated by the nuclei in a crystal. These are the essential concepts that will be emphasized in this course. It will begin with a description of crystal structure and diffraction theory to understand the crystal structure in real and momentum spaces in the form of a review. This will be followed by classical and semi-classical description of solids beginning from the free electron theory in metals, to tight binding theory in insulators, and band structure in semiconductors. Examples are given for how these different materials are employed in modern electronics and optoelectronics. One of the unique aspects of this course is that computer simulations will be used to aid in "visualizing" the concepts learnt in the class to develop an intuitive understanding of the structure in solid-state materials and their properties. The goal of the course is to equip the student with the knowledge necessary to master the modern framework in solid state materials that describes phenomena, such as electronic band structure, electronic transport, and the vibrational and thermal properties of solid state materials at an atomic level, and to prepare them for higher level graduate courses. The course is suitable for anyone interested in the science and engineering aspects of materials.