Introduction to Solid State Physics

Among branches of physics, solid-state physics has been very rapidly developed during the last 60 years. This is evidenced from the number of attendees and symposia held at the annual American Physical Society March Meeting, which is mainly devoted to condensed-matter physics in two broad subareas of solids and liquids. Many new and very useful physics discoveries were made; for examples, the transistor, artificially structured materials, high temperature oxide superconductors, scanning tunneling microscopy, fractional quantum Hall effect, optical fibers, semiconductor lasers, anti-ferromagnetic coupling through non-magnetic medium, high k dielectrics on high carrier mobility semiconductors for post Si CMOS, and photoemission are examples of the many. Solid state physics has pushed, inspired, and generated numerous important high-tech industries, from computing, communication, memory, display, transportation, to energy.

In this course of “Introduction to Solid State Physics”, fundamental topics such as “crystal lattices”, “the reciprocal lattice”, “wave diffraction and crystal structures”, “cohesive energies and classification of solids”, “energy bands, electron levels in a periodic potential” will be covered in the first 6-7 weeks. Many modern topics will be lectured and intensively discussed: superconductivity (2-3 weeks), magnetism (2-3 weeks), scanning tunneling microscopy (2-3 weeks), and surface physics (2 weeks).

Rules of classroom
• This course is for your benefit. Make suggestions!
• Classroom participation is strongly encouraged.
• During lecture, you may ask questions at any time.It is okay to interrupt simply to request a repeat of previous sentence(s) or a “slow-down” in lecture speed.
• Please try to attend every class, and notify me or the teaching assistant by e-mail of anticipated absences. The lecture notes along with special assignment will be e-mailed to you.
• Home assignments should be handed in at the following class.

Exams and Reports
• Take-home assignments, in-class exams, and mid-term will consist of a series of simple questions, perhaps requiring simple computations or literature search, to test the student’s comprehension of the course materials.
• You will be given a topic toward the end of the semester to write a term paper on the topic discussed in the class and/or its extension, including the associated technologies and applications. The term paper shall be handwritten in English, with the figures cut and pasted by hands. The length is in the range of 5-10 pages. You are required to orally present your paper in front of the class in a 10-15 minute talk in English.