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2017　Properties of Solid Materials

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Academic unit or major
Graduate major in Mechanical Engineering
Instructor(s)
Murakami Yoichi  Fushinobu Kazuyoshi 
Class Format
Lecture     
Media-enhanced courses
Day/Period(Room No.)
Thr3-4(S223,G111)  
Group
-
Course number
MEC.E432
Credits
1
Academic year
2017
Offered quarter
3Q
Syllabus updated
2018/3/19
Lecture notes updated
2017/11/22
Language used
English
Access Index

Course description and aims

In mechanical engineering, because solid materials are used in various situations from fundamental to application, understanding the properties of materials is highly important. Particularly, it is often desired to possess sound knowledge about thermal properties (thermal conductivity and specific heat) and optical properties based on understandings of the microscopic mechanisms that give rise to the macroscopic properties. Furthermore, it is important to make a right judgement on whether the theoretical framework one should employ toward a specific problem has to be quantum-mechanical or can be classical.
Students are expected to establish such understanding and ability by completing the contents of this course.

Student learning outcomes

By completing this course, students will:
- Understand how microstructure of solid materials and their physical properties dominate their observable macroscopic properties
- Understand the characteristics of the resultant properties
- Have acquired knowledge and ability to rightly judge whether one can use classical theory or should rely on quantum theory for modeling material’s property in various engineering situations

Keywords

Solid materials, phonon, specific heat, statistics, thermal properties, optical properties, nanomaterials

Competencies that will be developed

✔ Specialist skills Intercultural skills Communication skills Critical thinking skills Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

This course consists of eight lectures. Students who enroll in this course are encouraged to take his/her own lecture notes and self-study prior to and after each lecture using the "Reference books" listed below. Supplementary materials may be provided depending on the occasion.

Course schedule/Required learning

  Course schedule Required learning
Class 1 Fundamentals of solid materials: Crystal structures and their expressions (Forms of interatomic bond, symmetry and Bravais lattice, crystal systems/point groups, close-packed structures, reciprocal lattice) Learn fundamentals of solid materials and become able to explain the contents.
Class 2 Properties that arise from lattice (1): Lattice vibration and phonon (Speed of sound, mass-spring model, classification of phonon and phonon dispersion relation) Learn lattice-related properties regarding lattice vibrations and phonons, and become able to explain the contents.
Class 3 Properties that arise from lattice (2): Specific heat and thermal conductivity (Classical model, Einstein model, Debye model, dependence of thermal conductivity on temperature) Learn lattice-related properties regarding specific heat and thermal conductivity, and become able to explain the contents.
Class 4 Properties that arise from electron (1): Overview and classical descriptions (Wiedemann-Franz law, classical statistics, breakdown of classical model), quantum descriptions and resultant specific heat (Quantum statistics, Fermi sphere, electronic density of states, dependence of specific heat on temperature) Learn electron-related properties from both classical and quantum descriptions, and become able to explain the contents.
Class 5 Properties that arise from electron (2): Band theory (Bloch function, emergence of band, group velocity and phase velocity, dispersion relationship, effective mass) Learn electron-related properties from viewpoint of band theory and become able to explain the contents.
Class 6 Optical properties (1): Dielectric materials (Beer's law, complex refractive index, classification of polarization, dielectric dispersion, classical model of dielectric response, physical meaning of complex dielectric constant, energy reflectivity) Learn optical properties of dielectric materials and become able to explain the contents.
Class 7 Optical properties (2): Metals (Classical model for free-electron response, plasma frequency, dependence of reflectivity on wavelength, AC/DC conductivity, surface plasmon resonance, methods of tuning optical properties in metallic nanomaterials) Learn optical properties of metals and become able to explain the contents.
Class 8 Optical properties (3): Semiconductors (Some aspects and types of semiconductors, Fermi golden rule, joint density of states and optical absorption coefficient, quantum confinement, criterion for judging material's dimension, optical properties and application of low-dimensional semiconductors) Learn optical properties of semiconductors and become able to explain the contents.

Textbook(s)

See "Reference books, course materials, etc." below.

Reference books, course materials, etc.

J. S. Blakemore, "Solid State Physics", Cambridge University Press. (for entire this course)
M. Fox, "Optical Properties of Solids", Oxford University Press. (for lectures #6 to #8)
C. L. Tien and J. H. Lienhard, "Statistical Thermodynamics", Hemisphere Publishing Corp. (for reference)

Assessment criteria and methods

Method: Evaluation by a final exam (homework style).
Conditions: Solve the final exam problems, which are given as homework style, sorely by himself/herself and submit the results by deadline. In preparing the answers, following acts are strictly prohibited and treated as misconduct: Working together with other people, copying other people’s answer(s), and making answer(s) partially or wholly based on or by referring to other people’s answer.

Related courses

  • Other mechanical engineering and energy related courses

Prerequisites (i.e., required knowledge, skills, courses, etc.)

No prerequisites. (However, a registration to this class might not be approved in case a student has already obtained credits from other solid-state-physics-related classes of similar contents, because of potentially large overlaps in the contents depending on the course/department an attendee belongs to.)

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