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Useful Links

Journals

These are direct links to several journals. If you can link to them also through the OSU Library Proxy Server, you will have free access to all articles (ONID login required from off campus). If you cannot access a journal through the Proxy Server, request the article through interlibrary loan. This service is paid for by your tuition and/or fees.

  • Nature Materials is a monthly journal devoted to the latest-breaking news on new materials.
  • Nanoletters is a monthly journal specifically addressing physics and chemistry, of nanomaterials and nanodevices.

Band structure

  • Open MX website. You will use OpenMX for your band structure calculations.
  • Band structures of elements a periodic table that shows band structures of all the elements in their solid forms.
  • Kronig-Penney model Applet. This is an alternative approach to finding molecular wave functions. It solves the Schroedinger eigenvalue equation in a periodic, square potential well system.
  • The Materials Project Explore many materials, including band structure, phase diagrams and more. CIF files available. (You have to register).

Crystal structure

  • "The Orbitron" - Atomic and molecular orbitals from Sheffield University. Nice pictures and animations. (Firefox and chrome block the “flash” app, so you have to override and “allow” its use. Or use Internet Explorer browser)
  • Jmol and JSmol are open-source software apps to visualize crystal structures. The images in the “orbitron” page from teh Sheffield site use JSmol.

Semiconductors

Phonons

  • Dispersion relations and animations of phonon modes in several different crystals.
  • Java applet with interactive features demonstrating acoustic and optic phonon modes of diatomic chain (requires java; was a good site before, but didn't work well for me in 2019).

Miscellaneous

  • Webelements is a great periodic table with easy-to-access properties, electron configurations, group and period trends, etc.
  • Solid state simulations from Cornell University. Drude model is nice.
  • The Physics and Chemistry of Color: the 15 Causes of Color by Kurt Nassau (Wiley-Interscience, 2001) is a fascinating book that talks about why things are the colors they are. In the library, & you can browse bits of it on Amazon.com

Mathematica

Mathematica (by Wolfram) is one of several extremely powerful software programs that is useful for simple visualization of functions, computer-aided algebra, and is also a vehicle for very sophisticated programming. I highly recommend you use it for classwork, for research and for fun. As long as you are an OSU student, you are permitted a free copy for use on your own computer. Wolfram has extensive documentation and tutorials. Try something very basic like “the first 10 minutes with Mathematica” - you don't need much more.

Here are some Mathematica notebooks that I wrote that are relevant to PH575.

OSU seminars

Not part of the course, but watch these for relevant topics …


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