SOLID STATE PHYSICS AND THERMODYNAMICS OF MATERIALS.

Catalog description

This course comprises of three sections, a) solid state physics, b) classical thermodynamics, and c) statistical thermodynamics. The solid state physics covers the physics of crystalline solids. This includes 1) classical theory of electrons in metals, 2) Sommerfeld theory of electrons in solids, 3) reciprocal lattice, 4) Bloch's theorem, 5) energy bands of solids, and 6) electrons in weak periodic potentials. The classical thermodynamics covers macroscopic aspects of thermodynamics. It covers 1) entropy, 2) temperature, 3) first, second, and third laws of thermodynamics, 4) internal energy and free energy, 5) Helmholtz free energy, Gibbs free energy, and 6) Maxwell relations. The statistical thermodynamics covers microscopic aspects of thermodynamic laws. It includes 1) entropy and temperature, 2) second law of thermodynamics, 3) partition function and Boltzmann factor, 4) free energies, and 5) canonical and grand canonical formalisms.