Optical Properties of Solids (3 units). Introduction to solid state physics with special emphasis on optical properties of semiconductor systems. Advanced quantum mechanical methods in the description of electronic states in solids and the interaction of electrons with photons and phonons. Application-oriented introduction to transport phenomena and operational principles of selected device applications. Prerequisites: OPTI 501 and 543 or 570A.

Description:
This course is an introduction to solid state physics with special emphasis on optical properties of semiconductor systems. It employs quantum mechanical methods in the description of electronic states in solids and the interaction of electrons with photons and phonons. It also contains an application-oriented introduction to transport phenomena and operational principles of selected device applications.

A necessary prerequisite is a good understanding of basic electromagnetic theory and quantum mechanics (especially the physics of the hydrogen atom and perturbation theory). Some of the topics of this course will be covered in detail (for example optical properties of phonons and the physics of quantum wells), whereas other topics will only be covered in form of general overviews (for example optics of non-crystalline solids).

There are two major goals of this course. First, the course should present basic facts about optical properties of solids based on their microscopic structure. Secondly, the student should be enabled to understand various optical and optoelectronic phenomena used in devices on the basis of the few microscopic aspects presented in this course.

Course Outline

• Introduction to optical properties of semiconductors and metals (review of classical optical response functions, susceptibilities of dielectrics and metals, polaritons)



• Optics of non-crystalline solids (overwiew of molecules, polymers and glasses, σ and π orbitals)



• Introduction to crystals (definition of crystal structure, overview of crystal symmetries, zincblende and wurtzite crystals, Bloch’s theorem, examples of Brillouin zones)



• Phonons (review of classical lattice vibrations, dispersion relations, interaction with light, infrared absorption, light scattering)



• Optical transitions in semiconductors (light-matter interaction in dipole approximation, equation of motion for interband polarization functions, band-edge absorption without Coulomb interaction, excitons)



• Semiconductor quantum wells (overview of quantum confinement, optical transitions in quantum wells, brief introduction to k p theory)



• Transport phenomena (doping, statistics of donor and acceptor levels, drift-diffusion equations, overview of generation-recombination processes, p-n junctions)



• Applications (basic operational principles of semiconductor lasers and photo detectors)

• Class Notes can be purchased at the University of Arizona Bookstores

• N. Peyghambarian, S. W. Koch, and A. Mysyrowicz, Introduction to Semiconductor Optics (Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 1993). (Some material presented in this course will be taken from this text. The mathematical level of this book is slightly below that of the course OPTI 548)

• H. Haug and S. W. Koch, Quantum Theory of the Optical and Electronic Properties of Semiconductors, 2nd, 3rd or 4th ed. (World Scientific, Singapore, 2004). (Contains many more rigorous derivations of the introductory-level text book by Peyghambarian et al.. This is the required text book for the more advanced and more mathematically oriented course PHYS/OPTI 561. The mathematical level of this book is above that of the course OPTI 548)

• N. W. Ashcroft and N. D. Mermin, Solid State Physics (Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1976)

• C. Kittel, Introduction to Solid State Physics (Wiley and Sons, New York, 1996)

• S. L. Chuang, Physics of Optoelectronic Devices (Wiley, New York, 1995)

• P.Y. Yu and M. Cardona, Fundamentals of Semiconductors (Springer, Berlin, 1996)

• W. Schäfer and M. Wegener, Semiconductor Optics and Transport Phenomena (Springer, Berlin, 2002)

• C. Klingshirn, Semiconductor Optics (Springer, Berlin, 1995)

• J. D. Jackson, Classical Electrodynamics (Wiley, New York, 1975)

• B. E. A. Saleh and M. C. Teich, Fundamentals of Photonics (Wiley, New York, 1991)

• Ch. Hamaguchi, Basic Semiconductor Physics (Springer, New York, 2001)

• P. L. Hagelstein, S. D. Senturia and T. P. Orlando, Introductory Applied Quantum and Statistical Mechanics (Wiley, New York, 2004)

• C.R. Dillard and D.E. Goldberg, Chemistry; Reactions, Structures and Properties (Macmillan, New York, 1971)

• J.B. Pierce The Chemistry of Matter (Houghto Mifflin, Boston, 1970)

• R.F. Pierret Semiconductor Device Fundamentals (Addison-Wesley, New York, 1996)