CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS I
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2016/2017
- Teacher
- LUCIA DEL BIANCO
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- FIS/03
Training objectives
- The course deals with the main physical phenomena that laid the foundation for the passage from Classical to Quantum Physics, addressing the concepts of thermal radiation, interaction of radiation with matter, wave-particle duality and the description of the first atomic models. Moreover, the course presents the formalism of classical and quantum statistics with applications to the physics of solids. Finally, basic concepts for the description of crystalline solids are exposed.
Prerequisites
- Knowledge of classical Physics is needed
Course programme
- THERMAL RADIATION (6 hours)
Properties of thermal radiation. Black body. Stefan’s law. Wien’s law. Rayleigh-Jeans law. Planck’s theory
INTERACTION OF RADIATION WITH MATTER (6 hours)
Photoelectric effect: Einstein’s quantum theory; the photons. Compton effect. X-ray production. Pair production and pair annihilation. Definition of cross section
QUANTUM PHENOMENOLOGY (10 hours)
de Broglie’s postulate. Davisson and Germer experiment. The wave-particle duality. The uncertainty principle. Atomic models: Thomson’s, Rutherford’s and Bohr’s models. Hints on the Sommerfeld model.
STATISTICAL PHYSICS (20 hours)
Classical and quantum statistics. Distribution laws: Maxwell-Boltzmann, Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein.
Application of classical statistics: the ideal gas. The specific heat of a crystalline solid: law of Dulong and Petit, Einstein model, Debye model. The concept of degeneracy in statistics.
Application of the Fermi-Dirac statistics: the free electron gas; specific heat of the electron gas. Applications of the Bose-Einstein statistics: photon gas; phonons of the one-dimensional lattice. The Bose Einstein condensation.
INTRODUCTION TO SOLID STATE PHYSICS (6 hours)
Bravais lattice. Unite cell. Simple crystal structures. The Wigner-Seitz cell. Lattice planes and Miller indices. X-ray diffraction: Bragg’s law. Didactic methods
- Formal lectures and problem solving sessions.
Learning assessment procedures
- The examination consists of a written test followed by an oral session. The written test consists in solving some problems concerning the program and it is passed with a score of 18/30. During the interview, the student must expose some items proposed by the teacher. The final mark will be assigned taking into account the results obtained in the two sessions.
Reference texts
- 1)R.Eisberg, R.Resnick "Quantum Physics of Atoms, Molecules, Solids, Nuclei and Particles", 2nd Edition, J.Wiley & Sons, 1985
2)Alonso-Finn "Quantum and statistical Physics" vol. 3, Addison-Wesley
