Information

• Language: English;
• Responsible teacher: Péter Makk, Sándor Bordács
• Practice course: Martin Berke
• Programme: Physics-engineer
• Exam: Oral exam at the end of semester, written tests during the semester. The end result is composed 1/3 of the tests and 2/3 of the exam. For both parts passing is required.

Lecture: Tuesday, 10.15-12:00, F.213

Exercise: every second week, Wed, 16.15-18:00, E502

Exam topics

Topics

1. Heat capacity of solids Bose-Einstein statistics, Einstein's model and Debye's model
2. Electrons in metals: Drude theory - conductivity, Hall effect
3. Sommerfeld model: free electron theory, susceptibility, electron heat capacity, density
of states
4. Lattice vibrations: vibrations in mono- and diatomic chains (1D), dispersion relation,
eigen modes and Brillouin zone, vibrations in higher dimensions
5. Geometry of crystalline solids: crystal structure, lattice, reciprocal lattice, Brillouin-
zone, symmetry of crystalline solids, Neumann’s principle.
6. Structure determination: Bragg’s law, scattering amplitude and intensity, structure
factor, atomic form factor, X-ray and neutron diffraction
7. Electrons in solids: Fermi-Dirac statistics, nearly free electron model, Bloch's theorem,
electronic bands of a chain, metals and insulators
8. Electrons in solids II.: tight binding approximation, effective mass, metals and
insulators
9. Semiconductors: band structure, simple semiconducting devices

Literature

Steven H. Simon: The Oxford Solid State Basics

Further reading:

N. W. Ashcroft and N. D. Mermin: Solid State Physics

C. Kittel: Introduction to Solid State Physics