Waves and Electronic Materials - ZPEM2502

This course commences with a brief review of wave propagation in general and builds on existing knowledge of electrostatics and magnetostatics to arrive at Maxwell's equations and the electromagnetic wave equation in free space and in ideal materials. Additional topics include the Poynting vector, eddy currents, metal detectors and magnetic anomaly detectors. The alternative photon description of electromagnetic radiation (wave-particle duality) is used to introduce the concept of electron matter waves and their quantum mechanical description via the Schrodinger equation. Simple band theory models are developed to describe the behaviour of large numbers of electrons within an extended periodic crystal structure. In particular, the special properties of intrinsic and doped semiconductor materials are explored in the context of applications relevant to electronics and photo-electronics.