Course Contents

Chapter 1: Electrical Properties of Solids (Metals) Chapter 2: Energy Bands in Solids Chapter 3: Semi-conductor Crystals Chapter 4: Super Conductivity

Course Synopsis

Electrical Properties of Solids (Metals): Classical Free-Electron theory of Metals,(Drude Lorentz theory),Summerfeld’s Quantum theory, Free electron gas in one dimensional box, Free electron gas in Three dimensional gas, filling of energy levels, effect of temperature on Fermi Dirac distribution function, Density of available electronic states,Electrical and thermal conductivity and their ratio, Hall Effect. Energy Bands in Solids: Bloch Theorem, Kroning and Peny Model, Motion of Electrons in one dimension according to theory and in 3-Dimension. Distinction between metals, insulators and intrinsic semi-conductors.Velocity and effective mass of electron. Semi-conductor Crystals: Introduction of semiconductors,Pure or intrinsic semiconductors, impurity or extrinsic semiconductors : donor or n-type semiconductor, acceptor or p-type semiconductor, Drift velocity, Mobility and conductivity of intrinsic semiconductors, carrier concentration and Fermi level for instrinsic semiconductors, Law of mass action, Carrier concentration, Fermi level and conductivity for extrinsic semiconductors, Variation of conductivity with temp for n and P type , Mixed semiconductors. Super Conductivity: Introduction and historical development, Electrical resistivity, Perfect diamagnetism or Meissner effect, Super currents and penetration depth, Critical field and critical temperature, Type I and type II Superconductors. Thermodynamic and optical properties: entropy, specific heat and Energy gap, Isotope effect. Flux Quanitization, The Josephon effects and tunneling, Additional characteristics of Superconductors, Theoretical Aspects : The BCS theory, electron – Phonon interaction, Cooper pair, Existence of energy gap, BCS ground state, High temperature ceramic Super conductors. Applications of Superconductors.

Course Learning Outcomes

On completion of the course, the students should be able to: i) describe crystal structure of materials using different theories/models. ii) describe thermal and electrical properties of solids. iii) understand the properties of intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductors. iv) describe super-conductivity of materials. v) compute band structure, thermal and electrical properties of solids.