Courses Catalogue

This is an introductory undergraduate course of Solid State Physics aiming to understanding the basic properties of matter in its state of thermodynamic equilibrium and the way matter responds to external fields. The different types of atomic bonds that appear and the corresponding kinds of solid materials will be presented, with emphasis on the crystalline solids and their structure. We will study the main physical quantities that describe the equilibrium state and response of materials and will perform simple calculations of their order of magnitude using basic knowledge of quantum physics. Finally, a brief reference will be made to the magnetic properties of matter and interesting modern applications such as metamaterials, nanomaterials and so on.

Some interesting physical quantities - Types of chemical bonds - Periodicity and crystalline structures - Order of magnitude estimates using dimensional analysis - Jellium model and metals - Movement of free electrons in MJ - Movement of ions in MJ - Thermodynamics in MJ - Conductivity - Magnetic susceptibility - Linear combination of atomic orbits (LCAO) - Single dimensional model for metals, for ionic insulators, for molecular solids, for elemental semiconductors - Holes - Active masses and density of states - Impurities - Conductivity - Band structure semiconductor - Materials, metamaterials and nanostructures - Magnetic materials