Corso di laurea magistrale 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.

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.

• 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 the 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 the Debye approximation. Hints about anelastic phenomena and thermal conductivity of the lattice.
• 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 the Fermi-Dirac statistics on the electron-electron scattering cross section. Hall effect and magnetoresistance.
• Electrons in a lattice. Bloch's theorem and its implications. Energy bands. Hints about the 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 the Bloch oscillations.

In person, except in case of updates and measures to be adopted by UniTo, which will be avalable at the URL:  "Disposizioni per chi studia e lavora in UniTo" https://www.unito.it/ateneo/gli-speciali/coronavirus-aggiornamenti-la-comunita-universitaria/disposizioni-chi-studia-e

The total amount of class hours is 48. A few of them will be dedicated to exercises.

Usually the examination consists of a mandatory written part plus an optional oral part, both to be taken in person, except in case of updates and measures to be adopted by UniTo, which will be avalable at the URL:  "Disposizioni per chi studia e lavora in UniTo" https://www.unito.it/ateneo/gli-speciali/coronavirus-aggiornamenti-la-comunita-universitaria/disposizioni-chi-studia-e

Students who are in conditions of health problems related to COVID-19 (which have to be declared when booking the exam) will be allowed to take their exams in remote mode, following one of the ways established by the University, also considering the specific needs by physically impaired students and students with learning disorders.

The mandatory written examination consists in answering 4 questions, one of which is the solution of an exercise. The marks are evenly subdivided among these 4 questions, and the marks obtained for each question correspond to a fraction of the maximum available marks that is obtained by means of interpolation on the basis of the correctness, relevance and completeness of the answers. The total marks of the written examination correspond to the sum of the marks of each question.

The optional oral examination consists in answering two questions and the final marks of the whole exam are determined by using the marks of the written part as a starting point.

Lectures dedicated to solving a few examples of the written test.

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 lessons are available at "Materiale Didattico" (Educational Material) link .

1. All of the electronic documents concerning the present year's version of the course will be uploaded on the Moodle webpage of the course (see the icon "Vai a Moodle" at the bottom of the page). Please use Campusnet just to check out the documents concerning previous years' versions of the course.
   
   
2. The course will start on September 25th, 2023 at 11.00 a.m. in classroom Verde