Harrison has provided a new text on the electronic structure and properties of solids. It is similar in spirit to his well-known 1980 text (Electronic Structure and the Properties of Solids) on the same subject but is otherwise entirely new. In covers covalent semiconductors, ionic insulators, simple metals, and transition-metal and f-shell-metal systems. It focuses on the most important aspects of each system, making what approximations are necessary in order to proceed analytically and obtain formulae for the properties. Such back-of-the-envelope formulae, which display the dependence of...

This text focuses on the electronic structure and properties of solids. It covers covalent semiconductors, ionic insulators, simple metals and transition-metal and f-shell-metal systems. The main focus of the text is on the most important aspects of each system, making what approximations are necessary in order to proceed analytically and obtain formulae for the properties. In spite of the diversity of systems and materials, the approach to electronic structure is systematic and coherent, combining the tight-binding (or atomic) picture with the pseudopotential (or free-electron) picture. This...

Quantum mechanics is widely recognized as the basic law which governs all of nature, including all materials and devices. It has always been essential to the understanding of material properties, and as devices become smaller it is also essential for studying their behaviour. Nevertheless, only a small fraction of graduate engineers and materials scientists take a course giving a systematic presentation of the subject. The courses for physics students tend to focus on the fundamentals and formal background, rather than on application, and do not fill the need. This text has been designed to...