Physics 211a, Fall 2018

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 ~ about once a week, you should solve them and hand them in within a week. 10% of grade
3) One or two longer homework problem will be assigned, due 2 or 3 weeks later. 30% 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 Ashcroft-Mermin
0: Sep. 24 Overview Ch. 1 to 34
1: Oct. 1 Drude theory, free electron theory Ch. 1, 2
2: Oct. 8 Crystal structure Ch. 4, 7
3: Oct. 15 Reciprocal lattice` Ch. 5, 6
4: Oct. 22 Electrons in periodic potential Ch. 8
5: Oct. 29 Weak binding, tight binding Ch. 9, 10
6: Nov. 5 Band structures Ch. 11, 15
7: Nov. 12 Electron-electron interactions Ch. 17, 26, 32, 33, 34
8: Nov. 19 Electron dynamics, transport Ch. 12, 13, 16
9: Nov. 26 Phonons Ch. 22, 23, 24, 25
10: Dec. 3 Oral presentations
11: Dec. 10 Final

Holidays: Thu, Nov. 22