Walter A. Harrison – författare

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 behavior. 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 invaluable text has been designed to fill the very apparent gap.The book covers those parts of quantum theory which may be necessary for a modern engineer. It focuses on the approximations and concepts which allow estimates of the entire range of properties of nuclei, atoms, molecules, and solids, as well as the behavior of lasers and other quantum-optic devices. It may well prove useful also to graduate students in physics, whose courses on quantum theory tend not to include any of these applications. The material has been the basis of a course taught to graduate engineering students for the past four years at Stanford University.Topics Discussed: Foundations; Simple Systems; Hamiltonian Mechanics; Atoms and Nuclei; Molecules; Crystals; Transitions; Tunneling; Transition Rates; Statistical Mechanics; Transport; Noise; Energy Bands; Electron Dynamics in Solids; Vibrations in Solids; Creation and Annihilation Operators; Phonons; Photons and Lasers; Coherent States; Coulomb Effects; Cooperative Phenomena; Magnetism; Shake-off Excitations; Exercise Problems.A supplementary Instructor's Solutions Manual is available for this book.

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 behavior. 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 invaluable text has been designed to fill the very apparent gap.The book covers those parts of quantum theory which may be necessary for a modern engineer. It focuses on the approximations and concepts which allow estimates of the entire range of properties of nuclei, atoms, molecules, and solids, as well as the behavior of lasers and other quantum-optic devices. It may well prove useful also to graduate students in physics, whose courses on quantum theory tend not to include any of these applications. The material has been the basis of a course taught to graduate engineering students for the past four years at Stanford University.Topics Discussed: Foundations; Simple Systems; Hamiltonian Mechanics; Atoms and Nuclei; Molecules; Crystals; Transitions; Tunneling; Transition Rates; Statistical Mechanics; Transport; Noise; Energy Bands; Electron Dynamics in Solids; Vibrations in Solids; Creation and Annihilation Operators; Phonons; Photons and Lasers; Coherent States; Coulomb Effects; Cooperative Phenomena; Magnetism; Shake-off Excitations; Exercise Problems.A supplementary Instructor's Solutions Manual is available for this book.

This is a revised edition of the 1999 text on the electronic structure and properties of solids, similar in spirit to the well-known 1980 text Electronic Structure and the Properties of Solids. The revisions include an added chapter on glasses, and rewritten sections on spin–orbit coupling, magnetic alloys, and actinides. The text 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 any property on the parameters of the system, are characteristic of Harrison's approach to electronic structure, as is his simple presentation and his provision of all the needed parameters.In spite of the diversity of systems and materials, the approach is systematic and coherent, combining the tight-binding (or atomic) picture with the pseudopotential (or free-electron) picture. This provides parameters — the empty-core radii as well as the covalent energies — and conceptual bases for estimating the various properties of all these systems. Extensive tables of parameters and properties are included.The book has been written as a text, with problems at the end of each chapter, and others can readily be generated by asking for estimates of different properties, or different materials, than those treated in the text. In fact, the ease of generating interesting problems reflects the extraordinary utility and simplicity of the methods introduced. Developments since the 1980 publication have made the theory simpler and much more accurate, besides allowing much wider application.

This is a revised edition of the 1999 text on the electronic structure and properties of solids, similar in spirit to the well-known 1980 text Electronic Structure and the Properties of Solids. The revisions include an added chapter on glasses, and rewritten sections on spin–orbit coupling, magnetic alloys, and actinides. The text 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 any property on the parameters of the system, are characteristic of Harrison's approach to electronic structure, as is his simple presentation and his provision of all the needed parameters.In spite of the diversity of systems and materials, the approach is systematic and coherent, combining the tight-binding (or atomic) picture with the pseudopotential (or free-electron) picture. This provides parameters — the empty-core radii as well as the covalent energies — and conceptual bases for estimating the various properties of all these systems. Extensive tables of parameters and properties are included.The book has been written as a text, with problems at the end of each chapter, and others can readily be generated by asking for estimates of different properties, or different materials, than those treated in the text. In fact, the ease of generating interesting problems reflects the extraordinary utility and simplicity of the methods introduced. Developments since the 1980 publication have made the theory simpler and much more accurate, besides allowing much wider application.

Writing a memoir was not only an interesting experience for this Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University, but it also provided him an opportunity to revisit his past with his sons. The author graduated from Cornell in 1953 in Engineering Physics and received his PhD in Physics in 1956 at the University of Illinois. He was then at the General Electric Research Laboratory until 1965, when he moved to Stanford. He has seen his life transform from a physics student to husband, father, author, professor, scoutmaster, von Humboldt scholar, and sometimes musician. His published books include Pseudopotentials, Solid State Theory, Elementary Electronic Structure, and Applied Quantum Mechanics. Here he draws a parallel with the ancient alchemical goal of transforming lead into gold. The reader will find this engaging memoir rich in anecdotes and stories that constitute the various transformations resulting in what may be called a "golden experience".