Format: Two lectures per week (student participation strongly encouraged), bi-weekly homework assignments
Instructor: Professor Dmitry Budker
Professor's Office hour: by appointment (send e-mail to setup), 273 Birge
Graduate Student Instructor: Lokman Tsui [lokman_AT_berkeley.edu]; course office: 463 Birge
Synopsis and goals of the course: The course will provide a professional introduction to the vast subject of solid-state physics, where the concepts of thermodynamics and quantum mechanics are put to practice. Wherever possible, we will attempt to use simplest possible models retaining the gist of the phenomena, and will try to minimize lengthy formal calculations in favor of order-of-magnitude estimates. We will attempt to touch upon some modern topics, partially in lectures, and partially through several students' presentations.Required text: Ch. Kittel. Introduction to Solid State Physics. Eighth Edition, Wiley. This is a great classic text packed with essential information. Many readers find it a bit "dense" and overly laconic.
Recommended texts:
General:Grading policy: the grade will be based on homework (30%), midterm (on Feb. 26; 30%), final exam (40%), and oral presentation in class (for those who present: additional 1/2 grade)
Final exam: THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013 8-11A 101 Morgan
Invaluable resource: questions on organizational aspects of the course may be directed to Ms. Claudia Trujillo of Physics Student Services
Find out about the most recent Nobel Prizes in Physics!
| Louis Kang | Discovery of quasicrystals | 2/14 |
| Michael Tsang | Optical absorption of a single layer of graphene | 2/28 |
| Kevin Edward Babb and Petar Petrov | Nanowires and graphene: applications | 3/5 |
| Robert James Shalloo | Discoveries of Superconductivity: prezi or pdf | 3/7 |
| Nathan Brummel | SEM, TEM, Bragg Law | 3/12 |
| Yixing Fu | Supersolids | 3/14 |
| Shawn Tang | How the Fermi surface of copper was first measured experimentally | 3/19 |
| Satej Soman and Robert Tang-Kong | Mott metal-insulator transition | 3/21 |
| Elan Lavie | van Hove singularities | 4/4 |
| Matthew Melissa | GMR | 4/4 |
| Richard Beck | The Hall Effects | 4/9 |
| Yude Su | Nano-wire Photoelectrochemical cell | 4/11 |
| Skylar Kerzner | Strongest materials/space elevator | 4/11 |
| Huimin Yang and Zhifan He | Quantized resistance | 4/16 |
| Rob Johns | Molecular Crystals + the LEIST efect | 4/16 |
| Leslie Hamachi and Allison Wustrow | Nanoparticles | 4/18 |
| Carly Anderson and Emily Davidson | Conducting polymers | 4/23 |
| Aayush Singh and Robert Riestenberg | Solar-cell efficiency | 4/23 |
| Thang Toan Pham | Nanotubes | 4/25 |
| Steven Munn | STM and imaging techniques | 4/30 |
| The winners: L.Kang & Jihoon Kim | Graphene-absorption-challenge presentation | 4/30 |
| Xining Zang | Silicene, germinene, and Graphite acetylene | 5/2 |
|
Dohyung Kim |
Heterogeneous catalysis and solid-state physics | 5/2 |
| Byungmook Kim and Hyunkyung Bae | Nanosensors | 5/7 |
| Lu Zheng and Yize Jin | Topological Insulators | 5/7 |
Suggest your own
Acknowledgment and Disclaimer: This material is based in part upon work supported by the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recomendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).