ENEE 600 (793): Solid State Electronics

Course Goals:

The objective of the course is to give students a comprehensive understanding of the physics of electronic materials, which is necessary for a detailed understanding of semiconductor devices.

Course Prerequisite:

The course is self-contained so there are no prerequisites. However, a background in elementary quantum mechanics would be helpful for mastering the material.

Present Text:

  • C. Kittel, Introduction to Solid State Physics. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1976.
  • N. Ashcroft and D. Mermin, Solid State Physics. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders College, 1976.

    • Core Topics:

    • Outline of Quantum Mechanics: Introduction; Black Body Radiation; The Photoelectric Effect; Specific Heat of Solids; The Bohr Atoms; De Broglie's Hypothesis and the Wavelike Properties of Matter; Wave Mechanics; The Time Dependence of the Wave Function; The Free Particle and the Uncertainty Principle; A Particle in an Infinitely Deep One-Dimensional Potential Well; A Particle in a One-Dimensional Well of Finite Depth; The One-Dimensional Well of Finite Depth; The One-Dimensional Harmonic Oscillator; Orthogonality of Eigenfunctions and Superposition of States; Expectation Values and Quantum Numbers; The Hydrogen Atom; Electron Spin, the Pauli Exclusion Principle and the Periodic System.
    • Space Lattices and Crystal Types: Concept of Solid; Unit Cells and Bravais Lattices; Some Simple Crystal Structures; Crystal Planes and Miller Indices; Spacing of Planes in Crystal Lattices; General Classification of Crystal Types.
    • Crystal Analysis: the Reciprocal Lattice; The Bragg Condition in Terms of the Reciprocal Lattice. of Continuous Media; Group Velocity of Harmonic Wave Trains; Wave Motion on a One-Dimensional Atomic Lattice; The One-Dimensional Diatomic Lattice; The Forbidden Frequency Region; Optical Excitation of Lattice Vibrations in Ionic Crystals; Binding Energy of Ionic Crystal Lattices;
    • Outline of Statistical Mechanics: Introduction; the Distribution Function and the Density of States; The Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution; Maxwell-Boltzmann Statistics of an Ideal Gas; Fermi-Dirac Statistic; The Bose-Einstein Distribution.
    • Lattice Vibration and the Thermal Properties of Crystals: Classical Calculation of Lattice Specific Heat; The Einstein Theory of Specific Heat; The Debye Theory of Specific Heat; The Phonon; Thermal Expansion of Solids; Lattice Thermal Conductivity of Solids.
    • The Free-Electron Theory of Metals: Introduction; The Boltzmann Equation and the Mean Free Path; Electrical Conductivity of a Free-Electron Gas; Thermal Conductivity and Termoelectric Effects in Free-Electron Systems; Scattering Processes; The Thermal Capacity of Free-Electron Systems.
    • Quantum Theory of Electrons in Periodic Lattices: Introduction; The Bloch Theorem; The Kronig-Penney Model of an Infinite One-Dimensional Crystal; Crystal Momentum and Effective Mass; Reduced Zone Representation; Electrons and Holes; The Free-Electron Approximation; The Tight-Binding Approximation; Dynamics of Electrons in Two- and Three-Dimensional Lattices; Constant Energy Surfaces and Brillouin Zones; Insulators, Semiconductors, and Metals; The Density of States Function and Phase Changes in Binary Alloys.
    • Uniform Electronic Semiconductors in Equilibrium: Semiconductors; Intrinsic Semiconductors and Impurity Semiconductors; Statistics of Holes and Electrons - The Case of the Intrinsic Semiconductor; Ionization Energy of Impurity Centers; Statistics of Impurity Semiconductor; Case of Incomplete Ionization of Impurity Levels (Very Low Temperature); Conductivity; The Hall Effect and Magnetoresistance; Cyclotron Resonance and Ellipsoidal Energy Surfaces; Density of States, Conductivity and Hall Effect with Complex Energy Surfaces; Scattering mechanisms and Mobility of Charge Carriers.
    • Excess Carriers in Semiconductors: Transport Behavior of Excess Carrier; The Continuity Equations; Some Useful Particular Solutions of the Continuity Equation; Drift Mobility and the Haynes-Shockley Experiment; Surface Recombination and the Surface Boundary Condition; Steady-State Photoconductivity; Transient Photoconductivity; Excess Carrier

    Additional References:

    1. J.P. McKelvey, Solid State and Semiconductor Physics.
    2. C. Wolfe, N. Holonyak Jr., and G. Stillman, Physical Properties of Semiconductors. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1989.