Solid State Physics: Essential Concepts

Key Benefit: Solid State Physics: Essential Concepts centers on the unifying, essential theoretical concepts and tools of modern condensed matter physics that every reader should know to read the literature. It is envisioned as a graduate text for a 1-semester course although the reader is not assumed to have prior knowledge of solid state physics because results are derived from first principles. 

Key Topics: Electron Bands, Electronic Quasiparticles, Classical Waves in Anisotropic Media, Quantized Waves, Interactions of Quasiparticles, Group Theory, The Complex Susceptibility, Many-Body Perturbation Theory, Coherence and Correlation, Spin and Magnetic Systems, Spontaneous Coherence in Matter

Market Description: Intended for readers who need to learn the basics of modern condensed matter physics.

David W. Snoke (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1990) is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to coming to Pittsburgh in 1994 he was a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart with Manuel Cardona, and also worked in industry. In 2006 Professor Snoke was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society, "for his pioneering work on the experimental and theoretical understanding of dynamical optical processes in semiconductor systems.'' His present research focuses on Bose-Einstein condensation of excitons and polaritons in two and three dimensions. Professor Snoke’s diverse experience has given him strong feelings about the present needs in solid state physics education. In particular, his experience in the fundamental semiconductor optics community as given him a deep appreciation for the unifying theoretical methods which run through solid state physics, while his interaction with the Bose-Einstein condensation community has given him an appreciation for the underlying unity of coherent phenomena as diverse as superconductors, superfluids, and lasers.