Aims

To enhance the students' knowledge of materials and to strengthen their understanding of important material types (e.g. metals, semiconductors etc))

Outline Of Syllabus

What holds matter together?
Ionic and covalent bonding; Metallic bonding; Van der Walls and Hydrogen bonding.

Lattice vibrations:
1D monoatomic chains; 1D diatomic chains; phonons; phonon modes.

Crystal structure:
Lattice vectors; Unit cell; Bravais Lattices; Reciprocal lattice.

Wave scattering by crystals:
Bragg; Plane spacing; X-Ray diffraction;

Charge transport in materials:
Ion diffusion via lattice defects; Electrons in metals: Drude and Sommerfeld theory.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures are used for the delivery of theory and explanation of methods, illustrated with examples, and for giving general feedback on marked work.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

A substantial formal unseen examination is appropriate for the assessment of the material in this module. The coursework assignments allow the students to develop their problem solving techniques, to practise the methods learnt in the module, to assess their progress and to receive feedback; these assessments have a secondary formative purpose as well as their primary summative purpose.

In the event of on-campus examinations not being possible, an on-line alternative assessment will be used for written examination 1.