Physics of Solids without Considering Microscopic Structure: The Early Days of Solid State
Specific Heat of Solids: Boltzmann, Einstein, and Debye
1819, many solid has heat capacity
What is Solid State Physics?
- study of solids armed with quantum theory
- focused largely on (quasi)particles living inside solids
- electron (or holes), phonons, photons
- part of condensed matter physics (this includes quantum fluids, soft biological matter, liquid crystals)
\(C = 3 k_B\)
\(C = 3R\)
\(\begin{align} a &= b c &= d \end{align}\)
Why is Solid State Physics so important?
- fractional charges
- attracting electrons
- magnetic monopoles
- flow without friction or resistance (superconductivity or superfluidity)
- separation of spin and charge
- particles that are neither fermions nor bosons (anyons, non-abelian anyons)
What we are going to learn
- why metals conduct
- why some things are transparent and others not
- why computers compute
- why magnets stick to fridge doors
- why energy bands bend at the Brillouin zone boundaries
The crystal structures are very important to know the properties of the solid. We can make an experiment that will reveal the crystal structure of our solid - x-ray diffraction.