Physics 141B, Spring 2010

Midterm #1 Solutions
David Strubbe

1. a) The electron concentration is n = 2 1022 cm3 . The Fermi wavevector

1/3
in a free-electron gas is kF = 3 2 n
= 8.4 107 cm1 . The area of
the extremal orbit on the Fermi sphere is S = kF2 = 2.2 1016 cm2 .
The period is
 
2e
9.55 107 gauss1 cm2
1

=
=
= 4.3 109 gauss1 (1)
B
hcS

2.2 1016 cm2

b)
A=


1.05 1027 erg s 3.00 1010 cm/s

4.80 1010 esu 104 gauss

2

c
h
eB

2

S=

4.3 109 gauss

= 9.5 107 cm2

(2)

c)
p =

4ne2
m

1/2

= 8.0 1015 s1

(3)

The corresponding energy is h

p = 8.4 1012 erg = 5.2 eV. The
corresponding wavelength is = 2c/p = 2.4 105 cm = 2400
A.
2. a) A plasmon is a collective excitation involving electrons sloshing back and
forth with respect to the ions, as in a plasma. Plasmons can be excited
by high-energy electrons fired at a sample, so there will be a peak in
an electron energy-loss spectrum (EELS) corresponding to the plasmon
energy.

b) In an alkali-halide crystal, electromagnetic waves interact with transverse

optical phonons to form polaritons. The polariton dispersion relation
has a gap between T and L , a splitting caused by the photon-phonon
coupling. See Kittel Fig. 14.11.
c) Two possibilities are the Hall effect or thermopower.
i) In the Hall effect, the sign of the Hall coefficient gives the sign of the
carriers and thus identifies whether they are electrons or holes. For
thermopower, the sign of the Peltier coefficient gives the sign of the
carriers.
1
ii) In the Hall effect, the Hall coefficient RH = ne
gives the density

n. Then from the conductivity , the mobility is = ne

. For thermopower, the mobility can be found from the Peltier coefficient via


3
(4)
e = Ec + kB T /e
2
for electrons or


3
h = Ev + kB T /e
2

(5)

provided the conduction-band minimum Ec or valence-band maximum Ev are known.

3. a) There are two orbitals per unit cell, therefore there are two bands.
b) The nearest neighbors of each atoms are located at = a2 . The 2 2
Hamiltonian is

H=

s
s

hkp |H |ks i
k |H |k i

s   p 
 

kp H kp 
k H  k

(6)

We take the onsite matrix elements to both be zero. For the hopping
matrix elements, we need to realize that the overlaps between the nearest
neighbors to the left andRright differ in sign
because of the symmetry of
p x + a dx.
the px orbitals. Let = s (x) H
2


0
eika/2 + eika/2


H=
eika/2 eika/2
0




ka
ka 0 1
0
2i sin 2
= 2i sin
=
1 0
0
2i sin ka
2
2


Then the Schrodinger equation to be solved is Hk nk = Enk k .

2

(7)
(8)

c) The eigenvalues of the factored matrix are i, so Enk = 2i sin ka

2 (i) =

.
Plotting
in
the
1D
Brillouin
zone
from

to
on
the
k-axis,
2 sin ka
2
a
a
and energy in units of , the bandstructure is

which has a linear dispersion at the Fermi level like graphene.