Undergraduate Course: Introduction to Condensed Matter Physics (PHYS10099)

Course Outline
School	School of Physics and Astronomy	College	College of Science and Engineering
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate)	Availability	Available to all students
SCQF Credits	10	ECTS Credits	5
Summary	The course covers the structure of solids and other phases of condensed matter. The first part will give an introduction to materials which are not solid, or crystalline, and neither liquids, but are still condensed matter, such as colloidal fluids or glasses, gels and liquid crystals. The remainder of the course will be focused on providing a basic understanding of the electrical, thermal and mechanical properties of solids, and in particular metals and semiconductors. The aim is to give a firm grounding in the core concepts.
Course description	Soft condensed matter -Colloids and Brownian motion -Forces in colloidal suspensions -Phases and energetics of liquid crystals Hard condensed matter -Phonons in real materials -Introduction to crystallography -Electrons in solids, band structure -Metals, semiconductors and insulators; different types of chemical bonding

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites	Students MUST have passed: ( Physics of Fields and Matter (PHYS08046) OR Physics of Matter (PHYS08054)) AND Thermal Physics (PHYS09061) It is RECOMMENDED that students have passed Quantum Mechanics (PHYS09053)	Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None

Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisites	None
High Demand Course?	Yes

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2015/16, Not available to visiting students (SS1)		Quota: None
Course Start	Semester 1
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 22, Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 10, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Revision Session Hours 4, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 60 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 80 %, Coursework 20 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	80% exam 20% coursework
Feedback	Not entered
Exam Information
Exam Diet	Paper Name		Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S1 (December)	Introduction to Condensed Matter Physics		2:00

Academic year 2015/16, Part-year visiting students only (VV1)		Quota: 5
Course Start	Semester 1
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 100 ( Lecture Hours 22, Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 10, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Revision Session Hours 4, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 60 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 80 %, Coursework 20 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	80% exam 20% coursework
Feedback	Not entered
Exam Information
Exam Diet	Paper Name		Hours & Minutes
Main Exam Diet S1 (December)	Introduction to Condensed Matter Physics		2:00

Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to: Appreciate the different types of bonding in solids and of interactions in soft matter. Be able to solve problems involving order parameters (magnetism and nematic order). Be able to solve problems in reciprocal space (phonons and electron band structure). Be able to estimate magnitudes of thermodynamic properties of hard and soft matter such as heat capacity and thermal expansion. Be able to estimate transport and non equilibrium properties of hard and soft matter, such as electrical conductivity of a metal and viscosity of a fluid.