MAT E 334: Electronic & Magnetic Properties of Metallic Materials
(3-0) Cr. 3. Alt. S., offered odd-numbered years.
Prereq: MAT E 317
Electronic conduction in metals and the properties of conducting materials. Quantum mechanical behavior of free electrons and electrons in potentials wells, bonds and lattices. Development of the band theory of electron states in solids and the Free and Nearly Free Electron models. Density-of-states in energy bands and the Fermi-Dirac statistics of state occupancy. Quantum mechanical model of metallic conduction; Brillouin zones and Fermi surfaces. Additional topics include the thermal properties of metals, electron phase transitions in metallic alloys and the BCS theory of superconductivity. Classical and quantum mechanical treatment of the origins of magnetism in materials; orbital and spin angular momentum. Theory of magnetic behavior in dia-, para-magnetic, ferromagnetic materials.