The theory of how metals conduct electricity has, until recently, been confined to metals that are crystalline with the constituent atoms in regular arrays. The discovery of how to make solid amorphous alloys led to an explosion of measurements of the electronic properties of these new materials, and the emergence of a range of interesting low-temperature phenomena. The book describes in physical terms the theory of the electrical conductivity, Hall coefficient, magnetoresistance and thermopower of disordered metals and alloys. The author begins by showing how conventional Boltzmann theory...

This text gives students a clear and easily understood introduction to entropy - a central concept in thermodynamics, but one which is often regarded as the most difficult to grasp. Professor Dugdale first presents a classical and historical view of entropy, looking in detail at the scientists who developed the concept, and at how they arrived at their ideas. This is followed by a statistical treatment which provides a more physical portrait of entropy, relating it to disorder and showing how physical and chemical systems tend to states of order at low temperatures. Dugdale includes here a...

The theory of metallic conduction has, until recently, been confined to crystalline metals with atoms in regular arrays. The discovery of solid amorphous alloys led to an explosion of measurements of their electronic properties, and the emergence of a range of interesting low temperature phenomena. The book describes in physical terms the theory of the electrical conductivity, Hall coefficient, magnetoresistance and thermopower of disordered metals and alloys. The author begins by showing how conventional Boltzmann theory can be extended and modified when the mean free path of the conduction...