Introductory Condensed Matter Physics
Prerequisiti
course in English for third year students in Physics.
required background: courses of the first two years in Physics, elementary quantum mechanics.
Programma
Structure of liquids, amorphous solids and crystals. X-ray diffraction. Types of crystals: molecular, ionic, covalent and metallic. Phonons. Free electron model of metals. Bloch functions and electronic bands. Optical transitions, band spectra, excitons, polaritons, plasmons. Basic elements of nonlinear optics. Semiconductor nanostructures, microcavities and photonic crystals.
Obiettivi formativi
Getting acquainted with elementary concepts of condensed matter physics, with particular attention to electronic states and optical transitions, both in bulk and reduced dimensionality systems. First introduction to a few research topics of current interest in light-matter interaction.
Riferimenti bibliografici
C. Kittel: “Introduction to Solid State Physics”, Wiley
J.M. Ziman, "Theory of solids", Cambridge University Press
handouts