Solid State Physics, 5 cr

Core content:

• Different bonding types of solids
  
• Basics of crystalline structures, concept of unit cell, the lattice points and the basis of the lattice
  
• Main principles of X-ray diffraction
  
• Mechanical properties of materials, stress, strain, deformations and the stress–strain curve Thermal properties of materials, and their microscopic origins: lattice vibrations and their dispersion relations, one-dimensional chain of atoms
  
• Eectronic properties of metals, free and nearly-free electron models, density of states, tight-binding model(s)
  
• Basics of semiconductors: pn-junction, doping of semiconductors, Hall effect
  
• Properties of dielectric materials, frequency-dependent polarizability and permittivity

Complementary knowledge:

• Reciprocal lattice description of solids, Brillouin zone
  
• Basic semiconductor components: diode, transistor, LED, photovoltaic cell
• Screening of the electric field
  
• Fundamentals of magnetism: diagmagnetism and paramagnetism, magnetic ordering Fundamentals of superconductivity: BCS-theory, London equations, Meissner effect 
  

Special knowledge: 

• Dispersion relations of three-dimensional solids
  
• Low-dimensional systems, quantum confinement