SOLID STATE PHYSICS

 Pre-requisite:
Quantum Mechanics , Electricity & Magnetism I & II, Heat and Thermodynamics, Statistical Physics.
 Objectives:
1. To develop a basic knowledge of crystallography
2. To understand the x-ray diffraction in crystal investigation
3. To understand the binding forces in crystalline material
4. To develop the understanding of lattice dynamics and its uses in derivation of theories of specific heat
5. To understand the behavior of free electrons in metals and Fermi Energy.
  Course out lines
Structure of Solids
Lattices and basis, Symmetry operations, Fundamental types of lattice, Position and orientation of planes in
crystals, Simple crystal structures, Atomic potential, space groups and binding forces.
Crystal diffraction and reciprocal lattice:
Diffraction of X-rays, Neutrons and electrons from crystals, Bragg’s law, Reciprocal lattice, Reciprocal
lattice to sc, bcc, fcc, orthorhombic and hexagonal crystals, Laue method, rotating crystal method, Powder
methods, Scattered wave amplitude, Ewald construction and Brillouin zone, Fourier analysis of the basis.
Phonons and Lattice Vibrations:
Lattice heat capacity, classical model, Einstein model, Enumeration of normal models, Density of state
in one, two and three dimensions, Debye model of heat capacity, Comparison with experimental
results, Thermal conductivity and resistivity, Umklapp processes.

Recommended Books:
1. C. Kittle, Introduction to Solid State Physics, 7th Ed. By, Kohn Wiley, 1996.
2. N. M. W. Ashcroft and N. D. Mermin, Solid State Physics, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1976,
3. S. R. Elliott, The Physics and Chemistry of Solids, Wiley, 1998.
4. M.A. Omar, Elementary Solid State Physics, Pearson Education 2000.
5. H.M. Rosenberg, The Solid State, 3rd Edition, Oxford Science Publications 1990.
6. M.A. Wahab, Solid State Physics, Narosa Publishing House, 1999.
7. G. Burns, High Temperature Superconductivity, An Introduction, Academic Press 1992.
 Lecture 1

• Solid State Physics

• Crystal, Lattice and Basis
• Position of lattice sites
• Weigner Seitz cell

Dr. Abdul Majid Sandhu, Department of

Physics, University of Gujrat.
 Aim of Solid State
Physics
 Study of crystalline structures (Strctual, optical, electronic
properties).
 Study of electrons within crystals.
 Scope of Solid State Physics

 Understanding the electrical properties of solids is right at

the heart of modern society and technology.

 The entire computer and electronics industry relies on

tuning of a special class of material, the semiconductors,
which lies right at the metal-insulator boundary. Solid
state physics provide a background to understand what
goes on in semiconductors.
Types of matter

6
 Gases

 Gases have atoms or molecules that do not bond to

one another in a range of pressure, temperature and
volume.
 These molecules haven’t any particular order and
move freely within a container.

7
 Liquids and Liquid Crystals

 Similar to gases, liquids haven’t any atomic/molecular order

and they assume the shape of the containers.
 Applying low levels of thermal energy can easily break the
existing weak bonds.
-
+ - -

+ +
-
+ - - -

+ + +

8
 Crytals

 Solids consist of atoms or molecules executing

thermal motion about an equilibrium position fixed
at a point in space.
 Solids can take the form of crystalline,
polycrstalline, or amorphous materials.
 Solids (at a given temperature, pressure, and
volume) have stronger bonds between molecules
and atoms than liquids.
 Solids require more energy to break the bonds.
9
 ELEMENTARY CRYSTALLOGRAPHY

SOLID MATERIALS

AMORPHOUS
CRYSTALLINE POLYCRYSTALLINE
(Non-crystalline)

Single Crystal

Crystal Structure 10
 Crystalline Solid

 Crystalline Solid is the solid form of a substance in

which the atoms or molecules are arranged in a
definite, repeating pattern in three dimension.
 Single crystals, ideally have a high degree of order, or
regular geometric periodicity, throughout the entire volume
of the material.

11
 Crystalline Solid

 Single crystal has an atomic structure that repeats

periodically across its whole volume. Even at infinite length
scales, each atom is related to every other equivalent
atom in the structure by translational symmetry

Single Pyrite
Crystal

Amorphous
Solid
Single Crystal

Crystal Structure 12
 Polycrystalline Solid

 Polycrystal is a material made up of an aggregate of many small single crystals

(also called crystallites or grains).
 Polycrystalline material have a high degree of order over many atomic or molecular
dimensions, called, grains which are separated from one another by grain
boundaries.
 The grains are usually 100 nm - 100 microns in diameter. Polycrystals with grains
that are <10 nm in diameter are called nanocrystalline

Polycrystalline
Pyrite form
(Grain)

13
 Amorphous Solid

 Amorphous (Non-crystalline) Solid is composed of randomly orientated

atoms , ions, or molecules that do not form defined patterns or lattice
structures.
 Amorphous materials have order only within a few atomic or molecular
dimensions.
 Amorphous materials do not have any long-range order, but they have
varying degrees of short-range order.
 Examples to amorphous materials include amorphous silicon, plastics, and
glasses.

14
 Departure From Perfect Crystal

 Strictly speaking, one cannot prepare a perfect crystal. For example,

even the surface of a crystal is a kind of imperfection because the
periodicity is interrupted there.

 Another example concerns the thermal vibrations of the atoms around

their equilibrium positions for any temperature T>0°K.
 As a third example, actual
crystal always contains some
foreign atoms, i.e., impurities.
These impurities spoils the
perfect crystal structure.

15
 CRYSTALLOGRAPHY
What is crystallography?

The branch of science that deals with the geometric

description of crystals and their internal arrangement.

16
 CRYSTAL LATTICE

In crystallography, only the geometrical properties of the

crystal are of interest, therefore one replaces each atom by
a geometrical point located at the equilibrium position of
that atom.

Platinum Platinum surface

(scanning tunneling microscope)
Crystal lattice and
structure of Platinum
17
 Crystal Lattice
y
 An infinite array of
points in space, B C D E
b α
 Each point has identical
O a A x
surroundings to all
others.

 Arrays are arranged

exactly in a periodic
manner.

18
 Crystal Structure

 Crystal structure can be obtained by attaching atoms, groups of

atoms or molecules which are called basis (motif) to the lattice
sides of the lattice point.
Basis + Crystal Lattice = Crystal Structure

Crystal Structure 19
 Recipe of Crystal

Crystal structure = lattice + basis

20
 Crystal Lattice

Bravais Lattice (BL) Non-Bravais Lattice (non-BL)

 Atoms can be of different kind

 All atoms are of the same kind
 Some lattice points are not
 All lattice points are equivalent
equivalent
A combination of two or more BL

Crystal Structure 21
A two-dimensional Bravais lattice with
different choices for the basis
 Crystal structure

 Don't mix up atoms with

lattice points
 Lattice points are
infinitesimal points in space
 Lattice points do not
necessarily lie at the centre of
atoms

Crystal Structure = Crystal Lattice + Basis

23
 Translational Lattice Vectors – 2D

A space lattice is a set of points such that a

translation from any point in the lattice by
a vector;
P

R n = n 1 a + n2 b

locates an exactly equivalent point, i.e. a

point with the same environment as P .
This is translational symmetry. The vectors
a, b are known as lattice vectors.

oint D(n1, n2) = (0,2)

oint F (n1, n2) = (0,-1) 24
 Lattice Vectors – 3D

An ideal three dimensional crystal is described by 3

fundamental translation vectors a, b and c. If there is a
lattice point represented by the position vector r, there is
then also a lattice point represented by the position vector
where u, v and w are arbitrary integers.

  r’ = r + u a + v b + w c      (1)

25
 Unit Cell in 2D
 The smallest component of the crystal (group of atoms, ions or
molecules), which when stacked together with pure
translational repetition reproduces the whole crystal.

S S
S S S
b S S S S S
a
S S S S S

26
 Unit Cell in 2D
 The smallest component of the crystal (group of atoms, ions or
molecules), which when stacked together with pure
translational repetition reproduces the whole crystal.

S
The choice of S
unit cell
is not unique.
b S S

a
27
 2D Unit Cell example -(NaCl)

We define lattice points ; these are points with identical

environments

28
Choice of origin is arbitrary - lattice points need not be
atoms - but unit cell size should always be the same.

Crystal Structure 29
 This is also a unit cell -
it doesn’t matter if you start from Na or Cl

Crystal Structure 30
- or if you don’t start from an atom

Crystal Structure 31
This is NOT a unit cell even though they are all the same
- empty space is not allowed!

Crystal Structure 32
In 2D, this IS a unit cell
In 3D, it is NOT

Crystal Structure 33
Why can't the blue triangle
be a unit cell?

Crystal Structure 34
Unit Cell in 3D

Crystal Structure 35
Unit Cell in 3D

Crystal Structure 36
Three common Unit Cell in 3D

Crystal Structure 37
 UNIT CELL

Primitive Conventional & Non-primitive

 Single lattice point per cell

 Smallest area in 2D, or  More than one lattice point per cell
Smallest volume in 3D  Integral multibles of the area of
primitive cell

Simple cubic(sc) Body centered cubic(bcc)

Conventional = Primitive cell Conventional ≠ Primitive cell

Crystal Structure 38
 Wigner-Seitz Method

A simply way to find the primitive

cell which is called Wigner-Seitz
cell can be done as follows;

1. Choose a lattice point.

2. Draw lines to connect these
lattice point to its neighbours.
3. At the mid-point and normal to
these lines draw new lines.

The volume enclosed is called as a

Wigner-Seitz cell.

Crystal Structure 39
Wigner-Seitz Cell - 3D

Crystal Structure 40
Lattice Sites in Cubic Unit Cell

Crystal Structure 41