Describing the fundamental physical properties of materials used in electronics, the thorough coverage of this book will facilitate an understanding of the technological processes used in the fabrication of electronic and photonic devices. The book opens with an introduction to the basic applied physics of simple electronic states and energy levels. Silicon and copper, the building blocks for many electronic devices, are used as examples. Next, more advanced theories are developed to better account for the electronic and optical behavior of ordered materials, such as diamond, and disordered materials, such as amorphous silicon. Finally, the principal quasi-particles (phonons, polarons, excitons, plasmons, and polaritons) that are fundamental to explaining phenomena such as component aging (phonons) and optical performance in terms of yield (excitons) or communication speed (polarons) are discussed.

Table of Contents

1. Representation of electron-lattice bonds2. The free electron and the state density functions3. The origin of band structure within a weak bond approximation4. Properties of semi-free electrons: insulators, semi-conductors, metals and super lattices5. Crystalline structures, reciprocal lattices and Brillouin zones6. Electronic properties of copper and silicon7. Strong bonds in 1-dimension8. Strong bonds in 3-dimensions: study of the band structures of diamond and silicon9. Limits to classical band theory and amorphous media10. The main quasi-particles in material physics

About the Author

Professor Andre Moliton is Director of the Electronic and Opto-Electronic Plastics group at the Institut Carnot XLim, which is part of the Universite de Limoges in France. As well as being responsible for the First degree teaching in applied physics at the Universite for more than twenty years, he is also the author of more than one hundred international papers and four books (in French and translated to English) in the field of materials, opto-electronics and electromagnetism.