- #1
K.J.Healey
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Allow me to elaborate. I'm in a graduate Solid State Physics course currently. Luckily (or not) its a Survey course. This means that while there are a lot of mathematics covered in the lectures, the purpose of the course is to promote a basic understanding of the material.
Unfortunately I feel the class moves too fast and is over-saturated with the mathematics to allow me to gain a deep understanding of what is going on.
The problem is, I can do the math, but I have trouble with some basic concepts. (Like being asked why the 1D model of a sting of monoatomic atoms unstable at low temperatures?)
This is the first time I've really used k-space, fermi level/energy/etc;debye interpolation, etc. I mean we did degenerate perturbation theory for the semi free electron model. So while we have all of this overly technical/mathematical descriptions, we're expected to ignore it, and solely remember things like E,Cv Vs Temp, and how they go at different temperatures.
Enough explanation. We're using Hook and Hall, but a lot of the material in class is not from the book, and a lot in the book is left out. I was wondering if there was a recommended book I could get that would perhaps be a step down, approaching it from more of an intuitive method so I can answer questions by thinking rather than doing the math (I hate not being able to reason things out).
Thank you for your time!
PS I know a lot of people here write their own webpages explaining basic principles; does anyone know of one for solid state?
Unfortunately I feel the class moves too fast and is over-saturated with the mathematics to allow me to gain a deep understanding of what is going on.
The problem is, I can do the math, but I have trouble with some basic concepts. (Like being asked why the 1D model of a sting of monoatomic atoms unstable at low temperatures?)
This is the first time I've really used k-space, fermi level/energy/etc;debye interpolation, etc. I mean we did degenerate perturbation theory for the semi free electron model. So while we have all of this overly technical/mathematical descriptions, we're expected to ignore it, and solely remember things like E,Cv Vs Temp, and how they go at different temperatures.
Enough explanation. We're using Hook and Hall, but a lot of the material in class is not from the book, and a lot in the book is left out. I was wondering if there was a recommended book I could get that would perhaps be a step down, approaching it from more of an intuitive method so I can answer questions by thinking rather than doing the math (I hate not being able to reason things out).
Thank you for your time!
PS I know a lot of people here write their own webpages explaining basic principles; does anyone know of one for solid state?