DEPARTMENT OF MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

FALL QUARTER 2006
MSE 298, SECTION 1
ID: 595610201

“ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE OF MATERIALS”

INSTRUCTOR: Assoc. Prof. Vidvuds Ozolins
E-MAIL:
Phone: (310) 267-5538
Office: 6532F Boelter Hall

Time:            MONDAY/WEDNESDAY, 12:00 – 13:50  P.M.
                        2025 Engineering I
LETTER GRADING

This course is an introduction to modern first-principles electronic structure calculations. Students will get extensive hands-on experience with one of the most powerful modern density-functional theory (DFT) codes, VASP. We will cover the properties of electrons in molecules, crystals, and liquids with an emphasis on practical methods for solving the Schrödinger equation and using it to calculate physical properties of materials, such as: elastic constants, equilibrium crystal structures, binding energies, vibrational frequencies, electronic band gaps and electronic band structures, properties of point defects, surfaces and interfaces.

 Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of quantum mechanics.

READING: Efthimios Kaxiras, “Atomic and Electronic Structure of Solids,” (Cambridge University Press, 2003), 696 pages.
Richard Martin, “Electronic Structure: Basic Theory and Practical Methods,” (Cambridge University Press, 2003), 648 pages.