Physics
Solid State Physics
Solid state physics is the study of the physical properties of solid materials, focusing on the behavior of electrons, atoms, and molecules within solids. It explores phenomena such as conductivity, magnetism, and superconductivity, and has applications in electronics, materials science, and nanotechnology. This field seeks to understand and manipulate the unique properties of solid materials at the atomic and molecular levels.
Written by Perlego with AI-assistance
Related key terms
1 of 5
6 Key excerpts on "Solid State Physics"
No longer available |Learn more- (Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Library Press(Publisher)
________________________ WORLD TECHNOLOGIES ________________________ Chapter- 4 Solid-state Physics Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state physics studies how the large-scale properties of solid materials result from their atomic-scale properties. Thus, solid-state physics forms the theoretical basis of materials science. It also has direct applications, for example in the technology of transistors and semiconductors. Introduction Solid materials are formed from densely-packed atoms, with intense interaction forces between them. These interactions are responsible for the mechanical (e.g. hardness and elasticity), thermal, electrical, magnetic and optical properties of solids. Depending on the material involved and the conditions in which it was formed, the atoms may be arranged in a regular, geometric pattern (crystalline solids, which include metals and ordinary water ice) or irregularly (an amorphous solid such as common window glass). The bulk of solid-state physics theory and research is focused on crystals, largely because the periodicity of atoms in a crystal — its defining characteristic — facilitates mathe-matical modeling, and also because crystalline materials often have electrical, magnetic, optical, or mechanical properties that can be exploited for engineering purposes. The forces between the atoms in a crystal can take a variety of forms. For example, in a crystal of sodium chloride (common salt), the crystal is made up of ionic sodium and chlorine, and held together with ionic bonds. In others, the atoms share electrons and form covalent bonds. In metals, electrons are shared amongst the whole crystal in metallic bonding. Finally, the noble gases do not undergo any of these types of bonding.
No longer available |Learn moreSolid State Physics
From the Material Properties of Solids to Nanotechnologies
- David Schmool(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Mercury Learning and Information(Publisher)
The specifics of the changes of phase are crucially dependent on the atomic species and the num- ber of electrons it contains. Solid State Physics is a broad area of modern physics which deals with the fundamental physical properties of materials in their frozen phase. Materials come in a variety of forms and the way we clas- sify substances depends on what properties we are interested in. For example, when we discuss electrical properties of materials, we separate them into groups depending on whether they conduct well (e.g. metals), poorly (insulators) or somewhere in between (semi- conductors). In terms of magnetism, we divide materials into those with differing magnetic order; ferromagnetic, ferrimagnetic, para- magnetic etc. It is one of the main concerns of this book to outline this differentiation of material solids, as well as to give an overview of the relation between atomic species, atomic ordering and the physi- cal phenomena and properties of solid matter. At the root of all Solid State Physics are two basic aspects: chemi- cal composition and their spatial arrangement. In simple terms, what we have and how they arrange themselves with respect to one another. Atomic species will determine how they bond together (if at all). The bonding mechanism will frequently determine the spa- tial arrangement of atoms, thus giving a specific crystalline structure (taken under equilibrium conditions). The resulting physical proper- ties are principally determined by these two factors. For example, in metals, atoms are held together by the interaction between the ionic cores and free electrons, typically in some form of close packed structure. The mechanical properties are directly related to the bond strength between the atoms, which in turn depends on the type of atom (number of electrons). The structure will determine how the mechanical properties vary with direction, i.e., the anisotropy in the elastic constants of the material.
No longer available |Learn moreSolid State Physics
From the Material Properties of Solids to Nanotechnologies
- David Schmool(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Mercury Learning and Information(Publisher)
238 U, both have 92 protons, but the latter has three more neutrons than the former and has a larger natural abundance (around 99.2%). Atoms can be isolated in gaseous form or joined to other atoms to form a molecule, which can also exist in the gaseous phase. The phase or state of matter depends largely on the ambient conditions of temperature and pressure. In general conditions of high pressure and low temperature favor the condensation of a gas to form a liquid, and with further increase of pressure or reduction in temperature, a solid will by formed. The specifics of the changes of phase are crucially dependent on the atomic species and the number of electrons it contains.Solid State Physics is a broad area of modern physics which deals with the fundamental physical properties of materials in their frozen phase. Materials come in a variety of forms and the way we classify substances depends on what properties we are interested in. For example, when we discuss electrical properties of materials, we separate them into groups depending on whether they conduct well (e.g. metals), poorly (insulators) or somewhere in between (semiconductors). In terms of magnetism, we divide materials into those with differing magnetic order; ferromagnetic, ferrimagnetic, paramagnetic etc. It is one of the main concerns of this book to outline this differentiation of material solids, as well as to give an overview of the relation between atomic species, atomic ordering and the physical phenomena and properties of solid matter.At the root of all Solid State Physics are two basic aspects: chemical composition and their spatial arrangement. In simple terms, what we have and how they arrange themselves with respect to one another. Atomic species will determine how they bond together (if at all). The bonding mechanism will frequently determine the spatial arrangement of atoms, thus giving a specific crystalline structure (taken under equilibrium conditions). The resulting physical properties are principally determined by these two factors. For example, in metals, atoms are held together by the interaction between the ionic cores and free electrons, typically in some form of close packed structure. The mechanical properties are directly related to the bond strength between the atoms, which in turn depends on the type of atom (number of electrons). The structure will determine how the mechanical properties vary with direction, i.e., the anisotropy in the elastic constants of the material. It is worth noting, for example, that the melting temperature of a solid is a good measure of the interatomic bond strength, but will also depend on the number of nearest neighbor (nn
eBook - PDF- H.P. Myers(Author)
- 1997(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
1 The Materials and Methods of Solid State Physics 1.1 Phenomena and Materials It is customary to associate the separation of Solid State Physics as an integral subdivision of physics with the discovery of X-ray diffraction in 1912; this was a prerequisite for any proper understanding of the properties of solids. Another landmark, for physics as a whole, was the development of quantum mechanics and its application to model problems during the decade 1926–36. Since the end of World War II, Solid State Physics has grown continuously in size, diversity and sophistication in both theory and experiment. Perhaps the most significant developments have been: the availability of intense neutron beams from nuclear reactors and spallation sources; the widespread use of He 4 and He 3 to obtain temperatures down to a few mK; the large calculating capacity of modern computers; the development of molecular beam techniques for the preparation of semiconductor films and the use of lithographic methods to fabricate nanometre structures. Furthermore the development of ultra-high vacuum techniques has furthered the study of surfaces, adsorbed layers and low-dimensional structures. In principle, of course, any solid or liquid material is a possible object for study by a physicist, but traditionally, say up to 1950, specimens were almost always inorganic substances, pure metals, alloys, metal compounds such as CuO or ZnS and salts like the alkali halides or AgNO 3. Today the situation is different. The enormous growth of research activity in Solid State Physics and the bordering subjects of solid state chemistry and physical metallurgy has opened many new fields and led to the preparation of new materials or the search for samples amongst substances that formerly were thought to be of interest only to inorganic or organic chemists.
- Raúl José Martín-Palma, José Martínez-Duart(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Elsevier(Publisher)
The model ignores the details of the crystalline periodic potential and assumes a mean potential V 0. This model explains qualitatively many properties of solids such as the magnitude and temperature dependence of the electronic heat capacity or the Wiedemann–Franz ratio between thermal and electrical conductivities of metals. However, this model fails to explain other properties such as the existence of Hall coefficients with positive sign in some metals or the fact that some materials are semiconductors and others are metals. BOX 2.1 The Origins of Solid-State Physics: A Little of History It was only since the decade of the 1940s that solid-state physics was considered a main field within physics, partly due to the publication by Frederick Seitz in 1940 of the text Modern Theory of Solids. Solid-state physics describes the properties of solids (electrical, thermal and optical properties, magnetism, etc.) from a unified point of view based essentially on the quantum properties of electrons within crystalline materials. Also, the fact that the American Physical Society created in the decade of the 1940s the new Division of Solid State Physics helped to establish this new branch on a well-founded basis, and in close relation to the incipient semiconductor industry. The history of solid-state physics is linked to many great scientists and Nobel Prize holders such as Einstein. However, at this point, we would like to distinguish the physicist Arnold Sommerfeld, who in spite of not having won the Nobel Prize, was probably, together with Felix Bloch (Section 2.4), the first to apply by the late 1930s quantum mechanics to the behavior of electrons in solids
- Henry Kressel(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Academic Press(Publisher)
Chapter 1 Resume of Relevant Concepts in Solid State Physics 1.1 Crystal Structure The semiconductor materials used for electronic devices are said to be crys-talline in that they consist of a periodic arrangement of atoms with the lattice constant a 0 (also called the lattice parameter) being the measure of the unit cell. The basic concepts concerning the behavior of electrons in solids start with the isolated atom in which a positively charged nucleus is surrounded by a sufficient number of electrons to form a neutral entity. Although a classi-cal particle would have an infinite number of possible orbits, the fact that the electron behaves as a constrained wave rather than a particle results in only a definite number of possible orbits and hence energy levels. The transfer of electrons from one orbit to the next requires a quantum of energy which is either absorbed or emitted by the atom depending on whether it moves into a lower or higher energy orbit. The crystal structure of Ge and Si, the most widely studied semiconductors, is of the diamond lattice form in which each atom lies in the center of a tetrahedron formed by the four nearest neighbors. The binary compounds of greatest importance for luminescent devices, such as GaAs and GaP, are of the zinc-blende structure similar to the diamond lattice except that two nearest neighbor atomic sites are occupied by different elements, e.g., Ga and As, or Ga and P. One of the elements can be partially replaced by a suitable sub-stitute, for example, P for As, to form a ternary compound, Ga(AsP). 9 10 1. RESUME OF RELEVANT CONCEPTS Similarly, Al can be substituted for Ga to form (AlGa)As, with the basic lat-tice structure remaining unchanged, and even more substitutions are possible for more complex compounds. It is generally assumed that these partial ele-ment substitutions are random in nature.
Index pages curate the most relevant extracts from our library of academic textbooks. They’ve been created using an in-house natural language model (NLM), each adding context and meaning to key research topics.
