SURFACE PHYSICS AND NANOSTRUCTURES
Academic year and teacher
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2022/2023
- Teacher
- FEDERICO MONTONCELLO
- Credits
- 6
- Didactic period
- Primo Semestre
- SSD
- FIS/03
Training objectives
- Transveral objectives:
Biomimetics: to study the behavior of Nature at the nanometric lengthscale and get scientific knowledge to produce new technology.
Metamaterials: understand how Geometry (size lengthscale, dimensional confinement, symmetries, periodicity, fractal behavior, irregularity) provides materials with new properties with new physical laws (mechanical, optical, chemical) missing without such specific geometry.
Emergent phenomena: study how complexity in condensed matter determines at a larger lengthscale special regularities otherwise unpredictible at atomic level, special collective behavior in excitations interpreted as quantum quasi-particles.
Specific objectives:
Providing the knowledge of phenomena, interpretation theories, physical laws and corresponding technologies for: 1. the fabrication of interfaces, surfaces and nanostructured objects; 2. the chemical-physical interaction of surfaces and nanostructures with ambient molecules; 3. the main collective excitations of surfaces and nanostructures; 4. interaction of surfaces and nanostructures with electromagnetic radiation.
Ability of mathematically describing the physical phenomena at the nanoscale and the corresponding technologies.
Ability of presenting the scientific arguments abstracting regularities after the observation of natural phenomena at the nanoscale. Ability of deriving associated physical laws and technology.
Mastering metaconcepts both in physical-geometric and topological-technological fields. Prerequisites
- Basic knowledge of solid state physics
Course programme
- FIRST PART
Introduction to the physics of confined systems and nanotechnology. Basics of vacuum technology: kinetics, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics. Surface effects and underlying physical principles. Coverage, exposure, Langmuir isotherm. Vacuum regimes. Vacuum gauges. Vacuum pumps.
SECOND PART
Phenomenology of film growth. Principles of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Sputtering technique. Basics of low-energy-, and reflection-high-energy electron diffraction. Fractal concepts of film growth. Scaling concepts and critical exponents. Correlations. Random deposition. Ballistic deposition. Edward-Wilkinson and Kardar-Parisi-Zang equations. Linear theory of MBE. Desorption vs. diffusion analysis, scaling lengths. Scanning microscopy: tunnel current, atomic force, magnetic force microscopy.
THIRD PART
Electronic surface states. Surface resonances. Shockley and Tamm states. Intrinsic and extrinsic surface states. Clusters and nanocrystals. Exciton confinement in nanocrystals and variations of the energy gap and the optical properties of nanostructured semiconductors. Photoemission spectroscopy. Surface phonons. Reflectivity and surface dielectric function. Reflectivity of metal surfaces. Bulk plasmons, intra/inter-band transitions. Surface phonon polaritons. Surface plasmon polaritons. Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). High resolution EELS. Localized plasmons in metal nanoparticles. Plasmon excitation. Plasmon sensors. Basics of plasmonic crystals and their applications. Photonic crystals. Optical band diagrams.
FOURTH PART
Spin waves and magnonic crystals. Ferromagnetic resonance and Kittel formula. Confinements effects. Integer quantum Hall effect. Introduction to graphene: basic properties, molecular structure and electronic properties, ambipolar ballistic transport, saturation of optical absorbance, applications. Didactic methods
- Formal lectures. MATLAB(R) sessions for simulations. Visit to a few internal labs. Possibly, a few seminars held by experts.
A.Y. 2021/2022: Registered Lectures already present in the Classroom homepage [code: dhpjnpu]. Weekly online meetings, through the link associated to the Classroom, for questions, doubts, or even the full repetition of any lecture on demand. Possibility of in-presence meetings, requested in some advance. Learning assessment procedures
- The examination is oral only, and divided into three parts, where the student discusses three different subjects of the course. The opening subject is chosen by the student.
Reference texts
- Notes from the lecturer.
Reference textbooks:
Luth H., Solid Surfaces, interfaces and thin films (Springer, Berlin, 2001).
L. Novotny B. Hecht, Principles of Nano-Optics, second edition (Cambridge).
MATLAB (R) software UNIFE free student release.
