Condensed Matter Physics 238B
Winter 2009
Tuesday &
Thursday, 12:30-1:50pm
FRH 2111
Instructor:
Dr. Sasha Chernyshev, Associate Professor
Office: RH 310F
Phone: (949)-824-6440
E-mail: sasha@uci.edu
Web page: http://www.physics.uci.edu/~sasha/
Office hours: open office policy
Introduction
This course is the second in a sequence of three Condensed Matter
Physics courses.
It covers several broadly related topics. In all of them we use the
quantum mechanics
and statistical physics to understand the processes in solids
(condensed matter).
Topics to be covered
- Phonons
- Lattice sums
- Normal modes, second quantization
- Specific heat
- Crystalline order in one- and two-dimensions
- Debye-Waller factor, Moessbauer effect
- Interacting electrons
- non-interacting Fermi-gas
- Excitations: electrons, holes, e-h continuum
- Plasmon
- Lindhard dielectric function derivation
- plasmon with dispersion
- Landau damping
- Screening, singularity in it
- Friedel oscillations
- Electron-phonon
interaction
- Sound velocity in metals
- Sound attenuation
- Kohn effect
- Electron-phonon interaction Hamiltonian
- Acoustic case
- Coupling to optical phonons in polar crystalls
- Polaron, weak coupling
- Polaronic shift, mass renormalization
- 1D electron gas, Pierels instability
- Transport phenomena
- Boltzmann equation
- Relaxation time approximation
- Electrical conductivity
- impurity scattering, e-e scattering, e-ph scattering
- Transport coefficients
- Thermo-electric effects, thermal conductivity
- Wiedemann-Franz law
- Hall effect
- Lattice thermal conductivity
Recommended Books
- M. P. Marder, Condensed matter physics, published
by John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2000.
- Principles of the Theory of Solids, by J. M. Ziman,
Cambridge University Press; 2 edition (1979).
- Solid State Physics, by N. W. Ashcroft and N. D.
Mermin, Saunders College Publishing (1976).
- Quantum theory of solids, by C. Kittel, published by
John Wiley and Sons (1963).
Extra material
- a few pages on interacting electrons from Ziman (reasonably close
to the lectures), here.
- some more pages (Ch. 5 and 6) from Kittel, here.
- sound attenuation and electron-phonon interaction from Ziman, here.
- e-ph + polaron (Ch. 7) from Kittel, here.
- transport (Ch. 7) from Ziman, here.
- Hall Effect (classical), problem 17.9, Marder, here.
Homeworks
Homeworks will be assigned weekly. They will be collected three-four
times during the course on the "target" dates (approximately once
every two-three weeks) and graded.
The target dates will be announced separately. The homework assignments
will be due at the beginning of class.
The grade will be based on your homework.
- Homework, weeks #1 and #2:
Problems 1, 4, and 5 from Ch. 13, Marder's book.
Problem #A1: The chain has basis of 3 atoms
with different masses. Describe qualitatively the phonon spectra of such
a chain. Provide a sketch. (no calculations needed).
Problem #A2: Within the Debye approximation,
calculate the lattice specific heat in the low-T and high-T regimes in
(a) 1D and (b) 2D cases.
solutions
- Homework, weeks #3
and #4: Problems are here.
solutions
- Homework, weeks
#5 and #6: Problems are here.
solutions
- Homework, weeks
#7 and #8: Problems
are here.
solutions
- Homework, weeks
#9 and #10: Problems
are here.
solutions