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8: The Crystalline Solid State

  • Page ID
    403067
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    • 8.1: Molecular Orbitals and Band Structure
      Moving from atoms to molecules, we made linear combinations to generate one-electron molecular orbitals (and, in solids, one-electron energy bands). But as in multi-electron atoms, life is not so simple for real molecules and solids that contain many electrons. Electrons repel each other and so their movement in molecules and in solids is correlated.
    • 8.2: Prelude to Electronic Properties of Materials - Superconductors and Semiconductors
      Correlated electron effects give rise to metal-insulator transitions that are driven by small changes in temperature, pressure, or composition, as well as to superconductivity - the passage of current with zero resistance at low temperatures. In this chapter we will develop some simple models to understand these interesting and important electronic properties of solids.
    • 8.3: Metal-Insulator Transitions
      Under experimentally accessible temperatures and pressures, Si and Ge are always semiconducting (i.e., insulating), and Pb is always metallic. Why is Sn different? The reason has to do with orbital overlap. Theory tells us in fact that any (and all) insulators should become metallic at high enough pressure, or more to the point, at high enough density. For most insulators, however, the pressures required are far beyond those that we can achieve in the laboratory.
    • 8.4: Periodic Trends- Metals, Semiconductors, and Insulators
    • 8.5: Semiconductors- Band Gaps, Colors, Conductivity and Doping
      There are a number of places where we find semiconductors in the periodic table.
    • 8.6: Semiconductor p-n Junctions
    • 8.7: Diodes, LEDs and Solar Cells
      Diodes are semiconductor devices that allow current to flow in only one direction. Diodes act as rectifiers in electronic circuits, and also as efficient light emitters (in LEDs) and solar cells (in photovoltaics). The basic structure of a diode is a junction between a p-type and an n-type semiconductor, called a p-n junction. Typically, diodes are made from a single semiconductor crystal into which p- and n-dopants are introduced.
    • 8.8: Lattice Structures in Crystalline Solids
      The structures of crystalline metals and simple ionic compounds can be described in terms of packing of spheres. Metal atoms can pack in hexagonal closest-packed structures, cubic closest-packed structures, body-centered structures, and simple cubic structures. The anions in simple ionic structures commonly adopt one of these structures, and the cations occupy the spaces remaining between the anions.
    • 8.9: Superconductors
      The phenomenon of superconductivity, first discovered in Hg metal in 1911 by Onnes, continues to be only partially understood. It is of great interest to physicists as a macroscopic quantum phenomenon, and to chemists and materials scientists who try to make better superconductors (especially those that superconduct at higher temperatures) and devices derived from them, such as superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs), which are extremely sensitive magnetometers.


    8: The Crystalline Solid State is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.