Solid-state physics

Solid-state physics, the largest branch of condensed matter physics, is the study of rigid matter, or solids. The bulk of solid-state physics theory and research is focused on crystals, largely because the periodicity of atoms in a crystal — its defining characteristic —facilitates mathematical modeling, and also because crystalline materials often have electrical, magnetic, optical, or mechanical properties that can be exploited for engineering purposes.

Topics

• Amorphous solid
• Crystal structure
• defects
• quasicrystal
• Free electron model
• reciprocal lattice
• X-ray crystallography
• Electronic structure
• bandgap
• Bloch waves (electron waves in a lattice)
• conduction band
• effective mass
• electron hole
• Fermi gas
• Fermi energy
• Fermi liquid
• exciton
• valence band
• Electronic transport
• Bloch oscillations
• Drude model
• electrical conduction
• Hall effect
• magnetoresistance
• superconductivity
• Mechanical properties
• Debye model of specific heat
• elasticity
• Mossbauer effect
• phonons (lattice vibrations)
• Optical properties
• crystal optics