Condensed matter physics

A modern, unified treatment of condensed matter physics This new work presents for the first time in decades a sweeping review of the whole field of condensed matter physics. It consolidates new and classic topics from disparate sources, teaching "not only about the effective masses of electrons in semiconductor crystals and band theory, but also about quasicrystals, dynamics of phase separation, why rubber is more floppy than steel, electron interference in nanometer-sized channels, and the quantum Hall effect." Six major areas are covered---atomic structure, electronic structure, mechanical properties, electron transport, optical properties, and magnetism. But rather than defining the field in terms of particular materials, the author focuses on the way condensed matter physicists approach physical problems, combining phenomenology and microscopic arguments with information from experiments. For graduate students and professionals, researchers and engineers, applied mathematicians and materials scientists, Condensed Matter Physics provides: * An exciting collection of new topics from the past two decades. * A thorough treatment of classic topics, including band theory, transport theory, and semiconductor physics. * Over 300 figures, incorporating many images from experiments. * Frequent comparison of theory and experiment, both when they agree and when problems are still unsolved. * More than 50 tables of data and a detailed index. * Ample end-of-chapter problems, including computational exercises. * Over 1000 references, both recent and historically significant.