Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

Recitations: 1 session / week, 1 hour / session

Course Instructors/TAs

Instructors: Prof. Nicola Marzari (Electronic, Optical), Prof. David Paul (Magnetic)

TAs: Nicolas Poilvert (Electronic), Nicephore Bonnet (Optical/Magnetic)

Grading

Grading for this course is done on the basis of 2 exams and ~10 problem sets. Exams are not "open book", but you can bring one 2-sided, letter-sized sheet of mnemonic aids. For the exams, you'll probably need a very basic calculator.

ACTIVITIES PERCENTAGES
Problem sets 30%
Mid-term exam 30%
Final exam (during finals week) 40%

Collaboration Policy

Before preparing your problem set, you are welcome to discuss it with your fellow students. Data and figures may not be shared. All writing in a problem set must be original: do not copy any portion from reference material or the problem sets of other students, previous or current.

Texts

The class is based on these required texts:

Buy at Amazon Singleton, John. Band Theory and Electronic Properties of Solids. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780198506447.

Buy at Amazon Fox, Mark. Optical Properties of Solids. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780198506126.
Errata can be found here (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF).

Kittel, Charles. "Physical Theory of Ferromagnetic Domains." Reviews of Modern Physics 21 (October 1949): 541-583.