Introduction to solid state physics

New edition of the most widely-used textbook on solid state physics in the world. Describes how the excitations and imperfections of actual solids can be understood with simple models that have firmly established scope and power. The foundation of this book is based on experiment, application and theory. Several significant advances in the field have been added including high temperature superconductors, quasicrystals, nanostructures, superlattices, Bloch/Wannier levels, Zener tunneling, light-emitting diodes and new magnetic materials.

Charles Kittel did his undergraduate work in physics at M.I.T and at the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. He worked in the solid state group at Bell Laboratories, along with Bardeen and Shockley, leaving to start the theoretical solid state physics group at Berkeley in 1951. His research has been largely in magnetism and in semiconductors. In magnetism he developed the theories of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic resonance and the theory of single ferromagnetic domains, and extended the Bloch theory of magnons. In semiconductor physics he participated in the first cyclotron and plasma resonance experiments and extended the results to the theory of impurity states and to electron-hole drops.

He has been awarded three Guggenheim fellowships, the Oliver Buckley Prize for Solid State Physics, and, for contributions to teaching, the Oersted Medal of the American Association of Physics Teachers, He is a member of the National Academy of Science and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.