Official description

Introduction to the physics of solids and their electronic and thermal properties. Topics include crystal structure and symmetry, X-ray and neutron diffraction, electronic band structure, lattice vibrations and phonons. Selected advanced topics such as electron interactions and anharmonic effects will be also covered. A good understanding of undergraduate quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics is expected.

Topics:
1. Bonding, crystal structure and diffraction.
- covalent, ionic, metallic, van der Waals bonding
- periodic structure, the reciprocal lattice, diffraction condition
2. Lattice vibrations
- elementary excitations of a periodic lattice
3. Electron wave functions in periodic crystals
- simplifying the many-body hamiltonian
- energy bands, approximate methods, nearly free electrons, tight binding
- relating band structure to properties: metals, semiconductors and insulators
4. Electron dynamics
- effective mass tensor, Berry curvature
5. Electron-electron interactions (Time permitting)
- Hartree-Fock approximation, local density approximation