Introduction To The Electronic Properties Of Materials

Electronic materials provide the basis for many high tech industries that have changed rapidly in recent years. In this fully revised and updated second edition, the author discusses the range of available materials and their technological applications. Introduction to the Electronic Properties of Materials, 2nd Edition presents the principles of the behavior of electrons in materials and develops a basic understanding with minimal technical detail. Broadly based, it touches on all of the key issues in the field and offers a multidisciplinary approach spanning physics, electrical engineering, and materials science. It provides an understanding of the behavior of electrons within materials, how electrons determine the magnetic thermal, optical and electrical properties of materials, and how electronic properties are controlled for use in technological applications. Although some mathematics is essential in this area, the mathematics that is used is easy to follow and kept to an appropriate level for the reader. An excellent introductory text for undergraduate students, this book is a broad introduction to the topic and provides a careful balance of information that will be appropriate for physicists, materials scientists, and electrical engineers.

The present book on electrical, optical, magnetic and thermal properties of materials is in many aspects different from other introductory texts in solid state physics. First of all, this book is written for engineers, particularly materials and electrical engineers who want to gain a fundamental under standing of semiconductor devices, magnetic materials, lasers, alloys, etc. Second, it stresses concepts rather than mathematical formalism, which should make the presentation relatively easy to understand. Thus, this book provides a thorough preparation for advanced texts, monographs, or special ized journal articles. Third, this book is not an encyclopedia. The selection oftopics is restricted to material which is considered to be essential and which can be covered in a 15-week semester course. For those professors who want to teach a two-semester course, supplemental topics can be found which deepen the understanding. (These sections are marked by an asterisk [*]. ) Fourth, the present text leaves the teaching of crystallography, X-ray diffrac tion, diffusion, lattice defects, etc. , to those courses which specialize in these subjects. As a rule, engineering students learn this material at the beginning of their upper division curriculum. The reader is, however, reminded of some of these topics whenever the need arises. Fifth, this book is distinctly divided into five self-contained parts which may be read independently.

It is quite satisfying for an author to learn that his brainchild has been favorably accepted by students as well as by professors and thus seems to serve some useful purpose. This horizontally integrated text on the electronic properties of metals, alloys, semiconductors, insulators, ceramics, and poly meric materials has been adopted by many universities in the United States as well as abroad, probably because of the relative ease with which the material can be understood. The book has now gone through several re printing cycles (among them a few pirate prints in Asian countries). I am grateful to all readers for their acceptance and for the many encouraging comments which have been received. I have thought very carefully about possible changes for the second edition. There is, of course, always room for improvement. Thus, some rewording, deletions, and additions have been made here and there. I withstood, how ever, the temptation to expand considerably the book by adding completely new subjects. Nevertheless, a few pages on recent developments needed to be inserted. Among them are, naturally, the discussion of ceramic (high-tempera ture) superconductors, and certain elements of the rapidly expanding field of optoelectronics. Further, I felt that the readers might be interested in learning some more practical applications which result from the physical concepts which have been treated here.

Materials properties, whether microscopic or macroscopic, are of immense interest to the materials scientists, physicists, chemists as well as to engineers. Investigation of such properties, theoretically and experimentally, has been one of the fundamental research directions for many years that has also resulted in the discovery of many novel materials. It is also equally important to correctly model and measure these materials properties. Keeping such interests of research communities in mind, this book has been written on the properties of polyesters, varistor ceramics, and powdered porous compacts and also covers some measurement and parameter extraction methods for dielectric materials. Four contributed chapters and an introductory chapter from the editor explain each class of materials with practical examples.

This carefully revised third edition on the electrical, optical, magnetic, and thermal properties of materials stresses concepts rather than mathematical formalism. Many examples from engineering practice provide an understanding of common devices and methods.

Electronic Properties of Crystalline Solids: An Introduction to Fundamentals discusses courses in the electronic properties of solids taught in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University. The book starts with a brief review of classical wave mechanics, discussing concept of waves and their role in the interactions of electrons, phonons, and photons. The book covers the free electron model for metals, and the origin, derivation, and properties of allowed and forbidden energy bands for electrons in crystalline materials. It also examines transport phenomena and optical effects in crystalline materials, including electrical conductivity, scattering phenomena, thermal conductivity, Hall and thermoelectric effects, magnetoresistance, optical absorption, photoconductivity, and other photoelectronic effects in both ideal and real materials. This book is intended for upper-level undergraduates in a science major, or for first- or second-year graduate students with an interest in the scientific basis for our understanding of properties of materials.

This book provides an introduction to band theory and the electronic properties of materials at a level suitable for final-year undergraduates or first-year graduate students. It sets out to provide the vocabulary and quantum-mechanical training necessary to understand the electronic, optical and structural properties of the materials met in science and technology and describes some of the experimental techniques which are used to study band structure today. In order to leave space for recent developments, the Drude model and the introduction of quantum statistics are treated synoptically. However, Bloch's theorem and two tractable limits, a very weak periodic potential and the tight-binding model, are developed rigorously and in three dimensions. Having introduced the ideas of bands, effective masses and holes, semiconductor and metals are treated in some detail, along with the newer ideas of artificial structures such as super-lattices and quantum wells, layered organic substances and oxides. Some recent `hot topics' in research are covered, e.g. the fractional Quantum Hall Effect and nano-devices, which can be understood using the techniques developed in the book. In illustrating examples of e.g. the de Haas-van Alphen effect, the book focuses on recent experimental data, showing that the field is a vibrant and exciting one. References to many recent review articles are provided, so that the student can conduct research into a chosen topic at a deeper level. Several appendices treating topics such as phonons and crystal structure make the book self-contained introduction to the fundamentals of band theory and electronic properties in condensed matter physic today.