An accessible overview of the concepts and tools essential to the physics of materials, with applications, exercises, and color figures.

A Festschrift in honor of Professor Marvin L. Cohen This volume is a Festschrift in honor of Professor Marvin L. Cohen. The articles, contributed by leading researchers in condensed matter physics, high-light recent advances in the use of quantum theory to explain and predict properties of real materials. The invention of quantum mechanics in the 1920's provided detailed descriptions of the electronic structure of atoms. However, a similar understanding of solids has been achieved only in the past 30 years, owing to the complex electron-ion and electron electron interactions in these systems. Professor Cohen is a central figure in this achievement. His development of the pseudopotential and total energy methods provided an alternate route using computers for the exploration of solids and new materials even when they have not yet been synthesized. Professor Cohen's contributions to materials theory have been both fundamental and encompassing. The corpus of his work consists of over 500 papers and a textbook. His band structures for semiconductors are used worldwide by researchers in solid state physics and chemistry and by device engineers. Professor Cohen's own use of his theories has resulted in the determination of the electronic structure, optical properties, structural and vibrational properties, and superconducting properties of numerous condensed matter systems including semiconductors, metals, surfaces, interfaces, defects in solids, clusters, and novel materials such as the fullerides and nanotubes.

The book is an introduction to quantum field theory applied to condensed matter physics. The topics cover modern applications in electron systems and electronic properties of mesoscopic systems and nanosystems. The textbook is developed for a graduate or advanced undergraduate course with exercises which aim at giving students the ability to confront real problems.

In this updated and expanded second edition of a well-received and invaluable textbook, Prof. Dick emphasizes the importance of advanced quantum mechanics for materials science and all experimental techniques which employ photon absorption, emission, or scattering. Important aspects of introductory quantum mechanics are covered in the first seven chapters to make the subject self-contained and accessible for a wide audience. Advanced Quantum Mechanics, Materials and Photons can therefore be used for advanced undergraduate courses and introductory graduate courses which are targeted towards students with diverse academic backgrounds from the Natural Sciences or Engineering. To enhance this inclusive aspect of making the subject as accessible as possible Appendices A and B also provide introductions to Lagrangian mechanics and the covariant formulation of electrodynamics. This second edition includes an additional 62 new problems as well as expanded sections on relativistic quantum fields and applications of quantum electrodynamics. Other special features include an introduction to Lagrangian field theory and an integrated discussion of transition amplitudes with discrete or continuous initial or final states. Once students have acquired an understanding of basic quantum mechanics and classical field theory, canonical field quantization is easy. Furthermore, the integrated discussion of transition amplitudes naturally leads to the notions of transition probabilities, decay rates, absorption cross sections and scattering cross sections, which are important for all experimental techniques that use photon probes.

This is the only book to cover the most recent developments in applied quantum theory and their use in modeling materials properties. It describes new approaches to modeling disordered alloys and focuses on those approaches that combine the most efficient quantum-level theories of random alloys with the most sophisticated numerical techniques. In doing so, it establishes a theoretical insight into the electronic structure of complex materials such as stainless steels, Hume-Rothery alloys and silicates.

Despite a long tradition of sophisticated, creative materials synthesis among quantum materials researchers, a sense of broader community has been lacking. In initiating the Fundamentals of Quantum Materials Winter School held annually at the University of Maryland, we wanted to bring together the next generation of growers to learn techniques and pointers directly from senior scientists, and it turns out that we were not alone. The enthusiasm from both students and teachers has been both gratifying and invigorating. Four schools later, we can confidently say that physicists, chemists, and materials scientists, experimentalists and theorists alike, all want to know how to make a good sample. With this in mind, we asked our lecturers to record their most important ideas and share their expertise with a broader audience. This resource is a compilation of fundamental and practical guides on the modern methods of materials synthesis utilized by these experts. We hope that you enjoy reading their essential guidance and state-of-the-art techniques as you explore the Fundamentals of Quantum Materials.

This book contains advanced subjects in solid state physics with emphasis on the theoretical exposition of various physical phenomena in solids using quantum theory, hence entitled "A modern course in the quantum theory of solids." The use of the adjective "modern" in the title is to reflect the fact that some of the new developments in condensed matter physics have been included in the book. The new developments contained in the book are mainly in experimental methods (inelastic neutron scattering and photoemission spectroscopy), in magnetic properties of solids (the itinerant magnetism, the superexchange, the Hubbard model, and giant and colossal magnetoresistance), and in optical properties of solids (Raman scattering). Besides the new developments, the Green's function method used in many-body physics and the strong-coupling theory of superconductivity are also expounded in great details.