Corso di laurea in Fisica

To provide the students with the concepts necessary to understand of the fundamental phenomena of electronic and lattice dynamics in solids,  and of the properties of some classes of materials.

SANITARY CONTINGENCY: The objectives of the course are unchanged.

Fundamental concepts for the definition of the main optical, electronic and thermal characteristics of solid materials.

Fundamental concepts for the comprehension of physical phenomena at the base of some of the most widespread experimental techniques for the characterization of solid-state materials and devices.

Students will be able to describe the electronic motion in solids from a classical, semiclassical and quantum viewpoint.

Students will be able to handle the implications of the spatial periodic structure on waves, both electromagnetic and electronic.

Students will know how to deal with a physical situation related to electrical conduction in solid materials identifying the important quantities and their orders of magnitude.

SANITARY CONTINGENCY: The expected learning results of the course are unchanged.

Lectures and exercise classes.

SANITARY CONTINGENCY: In concurrence with the sanitary contingency, all lectures will be given online in synchronous mode, i.e. by following the planned timetable of the lectures during the teaching period. These video-lectures will consist of Webex live shooting (with simultaneous recording) of the classes given in person to some students, if allowed by the regulations in force, or, alternatively, of Webex live shooting of lectures given remotely by the teacher. In both cases, the recordings will be downloadable from the e-learning/moodle webpage of the course.

Written exam plus optional oral part.

SANITARY CONTINGENCY: In concurrence with the sanitary contingency, the written part of the examination will be replaced by the resolution of an exercise to be performed during the oral exam. The oral examination will take place online by adopting the Webex tele-conference platform. In particular, each evaluation commission will be composed by at least two teachers, and at least one student will participate as witness. Such procedures will be subject to possible variations, on the basis of future dispositions of the University of Torino and/or of the Physics Degree council.

SANITARY CONTINGENCY: In concurrence with the sanitary contingency, the necessary measures of integrative teaching (online tutoring and counseling sessions) will be defined together with the students in order to facilitate the understanding of the course contents.

• Waves in dispersive media and meaning of dispersion relation.
• Crystalline lattices and influence of their symmetry properties on physical quantities. Experimental techniques for X-rays. Laue theory of diffraction. Reciprocal lattice and its properties. Equivalence among Bragg and Laue theories.
• Lattice vibrations. Linear monoatomic chain. Systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom and decomposition in normal modes. Hints about  quantization of vibrations and the concept of phonon. Biatomic chain. Anharmonic terms and phonon coupling: phonon momentum. Neutron scattering.
• Calculation of the lattice specific  heat in Debye approximation.   Anelastic phenomena.
• Free-electron model for metals. Fermi level in different dimensions. Properties of electrical and thermal conduction for the Fermi gas. Phonon scattering and Wiedermann-Franz law. Thermoelectric effect.
• Plasma oscillations and electrostatic screening length. Effects of Fermi-Dirac statistics in electron-electron scattering cross section depression.
• Electrons in a period lattice. Bloch theorem and its implications. Energy bands. Kronig-Penney model. Quasi-free electron model in 1D and approximate wavefunction close to the Brillouin zone boundary. Fermi surfaces in 2D and 3D.
• Semiclassical model for electronic dynamics within the energy bands. Effective mass tensor. Equivalence among description of conduction by electrons or holes. Hints to Bloch oscillations.

SANITARY CONTINGENCY: The program of the course is unchanged.

Even if the first textbook is presented in the Italian Edition, it can be easily found in the original English one.

• C. Kittel, Introduzione alla Fisica dello Stato Solido, Casa editrice Ambrosiana, 2008
• N. W. Ashcroft, N. D. Mermin: Solid State Physics, Harcourt College Publishers, 1976
• Slides used during the lectures are available at the web page of the course on the Moodle platform.