Courses

PH 359: Physics at Nanoscale

This course covers the following topics:

  1. Electric transport in a wire – ballistic regime, quantization of conductance, Landauer formula, current in terms of chemical potential, Fermi function, Field effect transistor – self-consistent method to get potential, Coulomb blockade, current-voltage characteristics, thermoelectric effect, negative differential resistance
  2. Transport in the magnetic field – Low B, High B, SDH oscillations. Landau quantization, QHE, edge states
  3. Electronic phase coherence, Aharonov-Bohm effect, weak localization, non-locality of mesoscopic resistance
  4. Nanomagnetism:  Superparamagnetism of nano-particles, spintronics, spin-valve effect, spin-FET, CNT – spin valve

PH 208: Condensed Matter Physics – I

This course covers the following topics:

  1. Free electron theory of metals: Drude and Sommerfeld model, Fermi-Dirac distribution and definition of chemical potential, electronic specific heat in metals, breakdown of free electron theory and beyond one-electron approximation.
  2. Geometrical description of crystalline solids: Periodic structure and Symmetry of crystals, Reciprocal Lattice, Brillouin zones, x-ray scattering point groups.
  3. Electrons in periodic potential: The Bloch theorem, Density-of-states, and van Hove singularities, Band theory of electrons in crystalline solids, Tight-binding approximation, Fermi surface and de Haas-van Alphen effect, Chemical bonds, and cohesive energy.
  4. Lattice Dynamics and Phonons: Dynamics of monatomic and diatomic one-dimensional lattices, Dynamics of general three-dimensional lattices, Quantum harmonic crystal, Lattice heat capacity – Einstein and Debye model, Raman and inelastic neutron scattering.
  5. Excitations and transport in metals and semiconductors: Boltzmann equation, Optical transition in semiconductors, transport in homogeneously doped semiconductors.
  6. Magnetism: Hund’s rule, Larmor diamagnetism, Pauli paramagnetism in metals, Ferromagnetism and Weiss molecular fields.
  7. PH 359: Physics at Nanoscale

PH 213: Advanced Experiments in Condensed Matter

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