Solid State Physics Vs Materials Science
Mertie Oldow
Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as solid-state chemistry, quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state physics studies how the large-scale properties of solid materials result from their atomic-scale properties. Thus, solid-state physics forms a theoretical basis of materials science. Along with solid-state chemistry, it also has direct applications in the technology of transistors and semiconductors.
Solid materials are formed from densely packed atoms, which interact intensely. These interactions produce the mechanical (e.g. hardness and elasticity), thermal, electrical, magnetic and optical properties of solids. Depending on the material involved and the conditions in which it was formed, the atoms may be arranged in a regular, geometric pattern (crystalline solids, which include metals and ordinary water ice) or irregularly (an amorphous solid such as common window glass).
The forces between the atoms in a crystal can take a variety of forms. For example, in a crystal of sodium chloride (common salt), the crystal is made up of ionic sodium and chlorine, and held together with ionic bonds. In others, the atoms share electrons and form covalent bonds. In metals, electrons are shared amongst the whole crystal in metallic bonding. Finally, the noble gases do not undergo any of these types of bonding. In solid form, the noble gases are held together with van der Waals forces resulting from the polarisation of the electronic charge cloud on each atom. The differences between the types of solid result from the differences between their bonding.
The physical properties of solids have been common subjects of scientific inquiry for centuries, but a separate field going by the name of solid-state physics did not emerge until the 1940s, in particular with the establishment of the Division of Solid State Physics (DSSP) within the American Physical Society. The DSSP catered to industrial physicists, and solid-state physics became associated with the technological applications made possible by research on solids. By the early 1960s, the DSSP was the largest division of the American Physical Society.[1][2]
Large communities of solid state physicists also emerged in Europe after World War II, in particular in England, Germany, and the Soviet Union.[3] In the United States and Europe, solid state became a prominent field through its investigations into semiconductors, superconductivity, nuclear magnetic resonance, and diverse other phenomena. During the early Cold War, research in solid state physics was often not restricted to solids, which led some physicists in the 1970s and 1980s to found the field of condensed matter physics, which organized around common techniques used to investigate solids, liquids, plasmas, and other complex matter.[1] Today, solid-state physics is broadly considered to be the subfield of condensed matter physics, often referred to as hard condensed matter, that focuses on the properties of solids with regular crystal lattices.
Many properties of materials are affected by their crystal structure. This structure can be investigated using a range of crystallographic techniques, including X-ray crystallography, neutron diffraction and electron diffraction.
The sizes of the individual crystals in a crystalline solid material vary depending on the material involved and the conditions when it was formed. Most crystalline materials encountered in everyday life are polycrystalline, with the individual crystals being microscopic in scale, but macroscopic single crystals can be produced either naturally (e.g. diamonds) or artificially.
Properties of materials such as electrical conduction and heat capacity are investigated by solid state physics. An early model of electrical conduction was the Drude model, which applied kinetic theory to the electrons in a solid. By assuming that the material contains immobile positive ions and an "electron gas" of classical, non-interacting electrons, the Drude model was able to explain electrical and thermal conductivity and the Hall effect in metals, although it greatly overestimated the electronic heat capacity.
The nearly free electron model is a modification of the free electron model which includes a weak periodic perturbation meant to model the interaction between the conduction electrons and the ions in a crystalline solid. By introducing the idea of electronic bands, the theory explains the existence of conductors, semiconductors and insulators.
The nearly free electron model rewrites the Schrdinger equation for the case of a periodic potential. The solutions in this case are known as Bloch states. Since Bloch's theorem applies only to periodic potentials, and since unceasing random movements of atoms in a crystal disrupt periodicity, this use of Bloch's theorem is only an approximation, but it has proven to be a tremendously valuable approximation, without which most solid-state physics analysis would be intractable. Deviations from periodicity are treated by quantum mechanical perturbation theory.
Condensed matter physics is a branch of physics that studies the physical properties of matter in its solid and liquid states. Solid state physics is a subfield of condensed matter physics that focuses specifically on the properties of solid materials. Materials science is a broader field that encompasses both condensed matter and solid state physics, as well as the study of the structure, properties, and applications of all types of materials.
Some common research topics in these fields include studies of electronic, magnetic, and optical properties of materials, as well as research on new materials for energy storage, semiconductors, and nanotechnology.
Condensed matter physics and materials science have strong connections to other fields such as chemistry, biology, and engineering. These fields often collaborate on interdisciplinary research to develop new materials and technologies.
The advancements made in these fields have led to numerous real-world applications, such as the development of computer and smartphone technology, medical devices, renewable energy sources, and advanced materials for construction and transportation.
Some current challenges in these fields include understanding and controlling the properties of materials at the nanoscale and developing sustainable and environmentally-friendly materials. Future directions may include the development of materials for quantum computing, improving energy efficiency in electronic devices, and creating new materials for space exploration.
This new edition of the well-received introduction to solid-state physics provides a comprehensive overview of the basic theoretical and experimental concepts of materials science. Experimental aspects and laboratory details are highlighted in separate panels that enrich text and emphasize recent developments.
Notably, new material in the fourth edition includes sections on important devices, aspects of non-periodic structures of matter, phase transitions, defects, superconductors and nanostructures. Especially the chapters on super- and on semiconductivity had been completly updated, inlcuding new developments and new figures.
Students will benefit significantly from solving the exercises given at the end of each chapter. This book is intended for university students in physics, materials science and electrical engineering. This edition has been thoroughly updated to maintain its usefulness as modern text and reference.
"... An excellent mix of concepts, theoretical arguments, and discussion of modern experiments - all at an introductory level ... Full of illustrations, photographs, schematic diagrams of experimental techniques, and graphs of results..." - American Journal of Physics
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In recent years, the availability of large datasets combined with the improvement in algorithms and the exponential growth in computing power led to an unparalleled surge of interest in the topic of machine learning. Nowadays, machine learning algorithms are successfully employed for classification, regression, clustering, or dimensionality reduction tasks of large sets of especially high-dimensional input data.1 In fact, machine learning has proved to have superhuman abilities in numerous fields (such as playing go,2 self driving cars,3 image classification,4 etc). As a result, huge parts of our daily life, for example, image and speech recognition,5,6 web-searches,7 fraud detection,8 email/spam filtering,9 credit scores,10 and many more are powered by machine learning algorithms.
While data-driven research, and more specifically machine learning, have already a long history in biology11 or chemistry,12 they only rose to prominence recently in the field of solid-state materials science.
Traditionally, experiments used to play the key role in finding and characterizing new materials. Experimental research must be conducted over a long time period for an extremely limited number of materials, as it imposes high requirements in terms of resources and equipment. Owing to these limitations, important discoveries happened mostly through human intuition or even serendipity.13 A first computational revolution in materials science was fueled by the advent of computational methods,14 especially density functional theory (DFT),15,16 Monte Carlo simulations, and molecular dynamics, that allowed researchers to explore the phase and composition space far more efficiently. In fact, the combination of both experiments and computer simulations has allowed to cut substantially the time and cost of materials design.17,18,19,20 The constant increase in computing power and the development of more efficient codes also allowed for computational high-throughput studies21 of large material groups in order to screen for the ideal experimental candidates. These large-scale simulations and calculations together with experimental high-throughput studies22,23,24,25 are producing an enormous amount of data making possible the use of machine learning methods to materials science.
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