Physics 211a, Fall 2014

Course requirements and grading policy:

1) Attend all lectures (or as many as possible), pay attention at the lectures, ask questions. 10% of grade
2) Homework problems will be assigned ~ once a week, you should solve them and hand them in within a week. 15% of grade
3) One longer homework problem will be assigned around the middle of the quarter, due 2 weeks later. 25% of grade
4) Special topic paper due 9th week, oral presentation of the paper 10th and finals week. 50% of grade

TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE

Week Topics Chapter(s) in Marder
1: Oct. 6th Crystal structure Ch. 1, 2
2: Oct. 13th Reciprocal lattice Ch. 3
3: Oct. 20th Free electrons, Bloch electrons Ch. 6, 7
4: Oct. 27th Nearly free and tightly bound electrons Ch. 8
5: Nov. 3rd Energy bands, periodic table Ch. 10
6: Nov. 10th Electron-electron interactions Ch. 9
7: Nov. 17th Cohesion of solids, phonons Ch. 11, 13
8: Nov. 24th Semiconductors Ch. 19
9: Dec. 1st Dynamics, transport Ch. 16, 17
10: Dec. 8th Oral presentations
11: Dec. 15th Final