Book Description

Customer Reviews (3)

Use it as a paper weight.
As a scientist who went thru the rigors of getting a PhD in an American public university, I have noticed many subtle but inefficient practices.One of the worst goes as follows.A certain promising doctoral student starts on his (or her) research.His advisor hands him a classic text to read.Said text is nigh incomprehensible, but our prodigal student endeavors and comes to gradually understand the text and apply it to his studies.He graduates, begins his career and eventually gets that tenured position.Years later when he supervises his first graduate student, he imparts said text upon a new sufferer and the process begins anew.This book by W. A. Harrison is such a text.It is extremely hard to read, the words are small, there are few images or graphs or plots, and the examples are not geared for the computer age.But, because this book came out when solid state simulations began to spread in use and multiple free codes came about, it was read and used by many scientists and apprentices.Nowadays, there are dozens of much better books that are much easier to read and understand.Yet I still encounter this text being used.Why?Because many academics fought thru it, are proud of the feat, and somehow intend their trainees to do the same.

I read this book after reading thru over a dozen other books in the same subject, and found this to be the hardest and least understandable.This book is often considered the Bible of electronic structure simulations.This is a correct statement in the worst sense possible because the number of people who understand the Bible is much less than those who swear by it; i.e. very similar to this book.Overall, I do not recommend buying it or reading it.Its only redeeming quality is the exhaustive number of equations.

Without parallel in Materials Science literature
This book has no parallel in the literature of theoretical materials science. The information contained in the book allows first principle calculations of properties of important technological materials like perovskite oxides, semiconductors, etc. I would suggest the reader to consult the papers by R. Haydock and others in Solid State Physics, vol.35 of 1980 to
complemment the methods presented in the book.

Essential book for condensed matter physicists
If you are studying the solid state physics, it is a necessary book for you. It covers various properties of almost all kinds of solid state materials and shows pretty new experimental data from reliable sources.This book also starts with a clear introduction in each chapter so thateven for a beginner, it is easy to read. This book will be a good referencebook for you to find out the definition of terminologies in this field.Personally, I use this book as a referece frequently.

This book isdefinitely not a book you can read through quickly but a book where youfind out information through your life.

If you are a scientist andinterested in solid state physics like semiconductor or metal, this is alsoa good book to get a good guide and introduction. ... Read more

Book Description
This is the thoroughly revised and updated second edition of the hugely successful The Art of Electronics. Widely accepted as the authoritative text and reference on electronic circuit design, both analog and digital, this book revolutionized the teaching of electronics by emphasizing the methods actually used by circuit designers -- a combination of some basic laws, rules of thumb, and a large bag of tricks. The result is a largely nonmathematical treatment that encourages circuit intuition, brainstorming, and simplified calculations of circuit values and performance. The new Art of Electronics retains the feeling of informality and easy access that helped make the first edition so successful and popular. It is an ideal first textbook on electronics for scientists and engineers and an indispensable reference for anyone, professional or amateur, who works with electronic circuits. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (120)

Great refresher and then some
It is obvious to some that this book would contain material for the design of electronics but everyone who has any interest in the subject could just as easily learn electronics by giving this a read and performing some of the practice problems.I wish this was my text book in college.The book is a very easy read as the authors keep the material light at first and build on the knowledge gained from earlier chapters.I would recommend to anyone who might be interested in the subject.

A gem that needs polishing
Perhaps it is rare to review a book after 20 years of owning the 1st and then the 2nd edition. This is an invaluable book for the practicing engineer or inventor or hobbyist.It eliminates much theoretical background and gets to practical implementation.You will find a wealth of practical tips that you will never find in standard engineering textbooks.This is a reference book that I have used for many years.However I agree with the last reviewer that it is in dire need of an update. Needless to say there are 10+ years of advancing technology some of which would be valuable to included. It is still quite a useful book however. At this point, if you are a perspective buyer you may want to wait for an update.

Excellent reference, but getting dated...
The Art Of Electronics combines a lot of practical information about electronics that makes it a very useful reference text.I just wish they would update it.A 2007 version would probably get 5 stars.

Preparing for an interview?
Are you an undergraduate student preparing for your first interview with a semiconductor company? Or a graduate student who knows the complicated things but still fumbles with simple RC - RL circuit questions and how simple concepts relate to form the complex things you are conducting your research on? This book is for you.... I need not praise it any further as most of the good points can already be seen in the preceding 119 reviews. Everyone seems to love this book. If you're looking for a quick review of basic electronics, you should add this book to your library.

Worst Electronics Book for Beginners
Those peoples who give this book four or five starts are people who already understands electronics. But very few beginners buy and use this book and so there are very few reviews from them who would give this book one or two stars. For a beginner, this book is very confusing and lacks examples and exercises with answers. ... Read more

Book Description
Packed full of real circuits to build and test, Hands-on Electronics is an unique introduction to analog and digital electronics theory and practice. Ideal for teaching and self-study, the book's friendly style, clear illustrations and construction details encourage rapid and effective learning of analog and digital circuit design theory. All the major topics are covered including RC circuits, diodes, transistors, op-amps, oscillators, TTL logic, counters, D/A converters and more. It explains how to use the equipment needed for the examples (oscilloscope, multimeter and breadboard) together with pin-out diagrams and manufacturers' specifications for all the key components referred to in the book.Download Description
Packed full of real circuits to build and test, Hands-On Electronics is a unique introduction to analog and digital electronics theory and practice. Ideal both as a college textbook and for self-study, the friendly style, clear illustrations and construction details included in the book encourage rapid and effective learning of analog and digital circuit design theory. All the major topics for a typical one semester course are covered including RC circuits, diodes, transistors, op-amps, oscillators, TTL logic, counters, D/A converters and more. There are also chapters explaining how to use the equipment needed for the examples (oscilloscope, multimeter and breadboard) together with pin-out diagrams and manufacturers' specifications for all the key components referred to in the book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Impractical for the hobbyist
This book is well thought out, organized, and thorough. It provides excellent hands-on exercises that help you to really understand in a functional way how electronics work. The mathematical explanations and exercises may be challenging to folks who haven't used their college calculus/algebra/trig skills in a while (me included) - though they will serve those seeking to understand the underlying fundamental calculations.

With all those positives, why a 3 star rating? Well, the book assumes that you have ready access to a ~$1,000 oscilloscope and a ~$500 proto-typing bread board. On top of that, you need all of the bits and pieces to actually do the experiments - those are relatively cheap, but not always readily available (at a local store). All of the required equipment and supplies can be obtained on-line, but it will take a concerted effort, a chunk of cash, and some lead time to get all of this stuff. There are alternatives to the expensive oscilloscope and proto-board, but this path requires some assumed additional knowledge and may prove challenging as it deviates from the proscribed curriculum.

My final thought on this book is that it is quite excellent in a classroom / lab setting, but is not very "practical" for the hobbyist. ... Read more

Book Description
A practical new approach that brings together circuit theory and field theory for the practicing engineer
To put it frankly, the traditional education of most engineers and scientists leaves them often unprepared to handle many of the practical problems they encounter. The Fields of Electronics: Understanding Electronics Using Basic Physics offers a highly original correction to this state of affairs.
Most engineers learn circuit theory and field theory separately. Electromagnetic field theory is an important part of basic physics, but because it is a very mathematical subject, the connection to everyday problems is not emphasized. Circuit theory, on the other hand, is by its nature very practical. However, circuit theory cannot describe the nature of a facility, the interconnection of many pieces of hardware, or the power grid that interfaces each piece of hardware.
The Fields of Electronics offers a unique approach that brings the physics and the circuit theory together into a seamless whole for today's practicing engineers. With a clear focus on the real-world problems confronting the practitioner in the field, the book thoroughly details the principles that apply to:
* Capacitors, inductors, resistors, and transformers
* Utility power and circuit concepts
* Grounding and shielding
* Radiation
* Analog and digital signals
* Facilities and sites
Written with very little mathematics, and requiring only some background in electronics, this book provides an eminently useful new way to understand the subject of electronics that will simplify the work of every novice, experienced engineer, and scientist. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Fields of Electronics
This is a very helpful book for practicing electrical engineers.It discusses in detail the relationship between basic physics (particularly field theory) and electrical engineering, and shows how a knowledge of practical physics forms the basis for a complete understanding of electrical phenomena.This book fills a gap left by most college physics courses, which are too theoretical to be helpful with practical engineering problems.Five stars.

The Fields of Electronics
I really wanted to like this book. Truly. But it fails. Miserably. It does not represent a comprehensive approach to circuit and field theory. What I mean by this is that there is absolutely no method or application of field theory that provides insight into the quantitative design requirements of electronics to be found here. There is some solid construction advice concerning shielding and grounding, but this is probably better covered in the author's previous works. The numerous mistakes, not just typos, should have been caught in editing. The "fields" of schematic circuits... I wish they were laughable.
The graphics are not even good enough to make this pass as a good con job. ... Read more

Book Description

Solved Problem Series

These books help readers review and master what they've learned by showing them how to solve thousands of relevant problems. Perfect for preparing for graduate or professional exams, these detailed reminders of problem-solving techniques show readers the best strategies for answering even the toughest questions, including the types that appear on typical tests.

Customer Reviews (23)

good book
This book has plenty of practice problems and helped me to bring my grade up, but the problems seem kind of dry compared to textbook problems. Most of the problems have to do with the same situation (ex. boom, something going in a circle, inclined plane, etc.). Problems in texbooks are often more varied in style and force you think a bit more. If the problems are of a greater variety, this will definitely be 5 stars. I still recommend this for anyone who is hoping to get better grades in physics. You'll get a lot better by doing all those practice problems.

Simply Excellent
I bought this book to help my daughter with her physics class.I just wanted to help her practice with a few of the easier problems given that she is still in high school. Surprisingly, I found the bookbetter in comparison to the problems given in her actual textbook.Obviously, one cannot learn physics from scratch by doing these problems alone. Some initial instruction is required.However, once the basic concepts of physics are learned, this in turn becomes an excellent practice guide in order to master the topics covered. No matter what your level of acheivement is, this book will help you get to the next level.I wish I had found this book a lot sooner.

Amazing book, the naysayers are clueless about its real method ...
I never bought this book, because every time I looked at it on the shelf I quickly flipped through it, and every time decided it was full of too-simple problems, essentially just the plug & chug variety, not really much to be gained by a physics student.

But my dad had bought it to study for some engineering problems he was working on, and he didn't need it, so I grabbed it, and tucked it away for a few months.

Then I gave myself the goal of working through all 3000 problems, about 25 each night. I had hoped it would help me get better at doing these kind of problems in my head and improve my accuracy, which desperately needed improving.

Here's the deal with this book ... YES it does start with problems so simple that a high-schooler can do them, and then it drills those concepts over and over, but while that's happening, Halpern gradually increases the difficulty of the problems. For all of those people that insult this book as not challenging, I'll wager they would have a hard time with many of the problems by chapter end, at which point Halpern has developed an increasingly complex problem set. And amazingly, after working all the exercises, the problem-solver can handle many or most of them.

It's like that old movie Karate Kid, where the Ralph Machio character gets mad at his teacher for making him paint the fence all day, and then his teacher shows him that all his work has actually done something.

Halpern tells you this at the beginning of the book, that the his method will make you a "master of the art -- and should do so if used properly." The proper way of course, it to struggle with the problems that are a little harder before you are tempted to peek at the answer. (I use a folded paper to cover the answer while I look at the problem.)

If you are preparing or trying to learn all of physics, then you should skip around from chapter to chapter, rather than trying to work through a chapter at a time. This helps you synthesize a variety of information better.

There are a few typos and a few errors, but they are pretty easy to catch. And the redundancy of the problems makes errors less critical anyway.

(Halpern was a professor at my school for my MA in physics, City University of New York, although I never met him. I would like to meet him someday for helping me to become a master, although I still have a long way to go.)

PERFECT
Just like it was 30 years ago.Plenty of solved problems to self learn Physics.

Schaum's Solve Problems
The information in this problem book are many and some pertain to all physics have similar concepts in the way AlvinHalpen,PH.D has structure this book. Yet, for the newcomer in Physics will not easily understand. This book for resource and problems is fair!But not recommended! ... Read more

Book Description
Recent advances in semiconductor technology have made possible the fabrication of structures whose dimensions are much smaller than the mean free path of an electron. This book gives the first thorough account of the theory of electronic transport in such mesoscopic systems. Beginning with coverage of fundamental concepts, the book presents a detailed account of transmission function formalism which is used to describe three key topics in mesoscopic physics: the quantum Hall effect, localization, and double-barrier tunneling. Other sections include a discussion of optical analogies to mesoscopic phenomena, followed by a concluding description of the non-equilibrium Green's function formalism and its relation to the transmission formalism. Complete with problems and solutions, the book will be of great interest to graduate students of mesoscopic physics and nanoelectronic device engineering, as well as to established researchers in these fields. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Integrals from my heart
A few words to just sum it up, SUPER DATTA. The electro-moelecur analysis presented by author Super Datta is an incredible interpretation in defining the forier series. Euler's Identity is not only sexy, but intellectually stimulating. My boyfriend Michael and I a few weekends ago in Key West Florida had the opportunity to visit with Super Datta. While sipping tasty tropical beverages and listening to KC and the Sunshine band, we contemplated for hours over quantum mechanical models. This is simply the beginning of the decaying power sears.

Super Data, Super Job, I'm simply, In love

sincerely

*Timothy*

A great book
The book primarily describes the so-called transmission formalism which is applied to electron transport in mesoscopic systems. Yet the main strength of the book is its introduction of the powerful, yet easy to implement numerically, apparatus of single-particle Green's functions. A device engineer armed with the knowledge of this apparatus and a copy of MatLab should be able to accurately model conductance and charge distribution in devices on the scale of tens of nanometers. Indeed, the book illustrates the application of the apparatus to transmission calculations in devices such as resonant tunneling diodes and single-electron transistors. The book provides much more thancalculation recipes; the roots and physical relevance of the transmission formalism are well explained by examples such as the quantum Hall effect and conductance fluctuations. The text should be a great aid to future nanoelectronic device engineers. ... Read more

Product Description
This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the physics of the photovoltaic cell. It is suitable for undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers new to the field. It covers: basic physics of semiconductors in photovoltaic devices; physical models of solar cell operation; characteristics and design of common types of solar cell; and approaches to increasing solar cell efficiency. The text explains the terms and concepts of solar cell device physics and shows the reader how to formulate and solve relevant physical problems. Exercises and worked solutions are included.

Contents: Photons In, Electrons Out: Basic Principles of PV; Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors; Generation and Recombination; Junctions; Analysis of the p n Junction; Monocrystalline Solar Cells; Thin Film Solar Cells; Managing Light; Over the Limit: Strategies for Higher Efficiency. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good
Though it is of softcover instead of hardcover edition, but totally new and mailed quite quickly. ... Read more

Book Description
The development of faster and smaller electronic devices leads from microelectronics to nanoelectronics. In nanoscopic or mesoscopic systems quantum effects such as the quantum Hall effect, new electronic transport phenomena and other aspects of electron-photon interactions become important. The physics of mesoscopic systems, the relevant effects and phenomena and new quantum device concepts as well as the formation and characterization of quantum structures are discussed. This is the most comprehensive presentation of the basis and realization of a new and promising concept for future electronic devices. This book is a must for all researchers in this field. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent introduction to the mesoscopic physics!
This is a great introductory book for people who have just entered this field.It explains those deep concepts in rather simple words and formula, but very clear.And it is so well organized you will never get lost whilereading it. ... Read more

Book Description
This student-oriented text familiarizes undergraduates with the electronics involved in scientific instrumentation and control systems for use in research and end products. Suitable for the one- or two-semester courses, the text emphasizes electronics applications, rather than the physics or engineering of a device. This makes the material suitable for students who need a fundamental knowledge of electronics for the laboratory or workplace. Manufacturers' data sheets for nearly every common component are gathered in a convenient appendix, making learning and applications much easier and providing students with a valuable reference tool. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

a very good book
I'm not sure why there are so many poor reviews of this book. I used the 2nd edition years ago and liked it - this 3rd edition continues to be very good.

It's approach is simple, clear & direct. The math is mostly algebra & trigonometry based with a bit of calculus thrown in here and there.This makes it very approachable especially if you don't have much experience with electronics. It's much clearer than Brophy ever was and more detailed than Faissler's book (Introduction to Modern Electronics).

I find many university level intro electronics books don't give enough motivation i.e. how you actually use the stuff. Electronics is, after all, an intensely PRACTICAL subject. This book throughout shows you where and how it relates to scientific applications. Chapter 7 on transducers and chapter 15 on noise are good intros to these areas in this regard.

dislikes: 30% (170/577 pages) of book is devoted to datasheets. Why, I don't know. In every intro electronics course I've seen datasheets are rarely used. And just how likely is it that you'll need the ones in this book? - usually you'll need sheets for some oddball component in the lab portion of a course. These pages are a waste and should have been devoted to something else.

It should also have had end-of-chapter references for more advanced books. Glossary would have been nice too.

----------------------

if you want a more rigorous intro book use "Principles of Electronics: Analog and Digital" by Lloyd R. Fortney.

If you want more info on transducers, practical building and noise reduction techniques look at 1) "Electronics and Instrumentation for Scientists" by Malmstadt/Enke/Crouch, 2) "Measurement and Instrumentation Principles" 3rd Edition by Alan S. Morris, 3) "Signal Recovery from Noise in Electronic Instrumentation" by T.H. Wilmshurst, 4) "Electronic Instrument Handbook" by Clyde F. Coombs and 5) "Building Scientific Apparatus" by Moore/Davis/Coplan

A little pricey
The book seems poorly edited, the presentation of the basic material is too short (a large portion of this book is data sheets), much of the mateial in the exercises at the ends of the chapters is not discussed in the text, and there ar no solutions provided.On the other hand, the book does some good in its short and to-the-point explanations of some basic to intemediate ideas in modern electronics, and it is up-to-date. I would not reccomend this book for self study, but it should work fairly well for an introductory course at the undergraduate level- as long as the instructor covers the material left out of the book.

Good as a Reference, Bad as a Teacher
I haven't tackled many of the problems, so I can't speak to the overabundance of typos that everybody else is complaining about, nor the quality of selection of the problems. I can say that this book presents a very organized review of a wide range of well-chosen topics. If you already have a decent understanding, it's an excellent reference. However, I find that whenever I come across a topic in which I need instruction right from the beginning, this book is almost always way too terse to be of any use.

Confusing
The way in which some of the sections are presented is much more complicated than they have to be in this book. It also has a tendency to give you problems that it hasn't taught in the section, expecting you to understand the concept from the limited information in the question. The only thing I really like about this book is that all the answers are in the back, not just the even or the odd.

Thoroughly Error Ridden, Little Support
I used this book in my undergraduate career as a physics and math major.I took Electronics Instrumentation as an elective because I genuinely wanted to learn the material, but I was sorely disappointed in the text.Besides being riddled with typos and errors, I found that the book was of no use as far as giving solutions (or even answers!) to any of the problems at the ends of the chapters.Additionally, I used the lab manual that accompanies the text, and it was equally error-ridden and unsupportive.It was as though no one ever proofed the texts prior to publication.Overall I think that with some editing, added solutions, and attention to student feedback this book could be a good resource as it covers a broad range of topics, but as it stands it is lacking. ... Read more

Book Description
This book is a collection of some of the invited talks presented at the international meeting held at the Max Planck Institut fuer Physik Komplexer Systeme, Dresden, Germany during August 6-30, 2001, on the rapidly developing field of nanoscale science in science and bio-electronics Semiconductor physics has experienced unprecedented developments over the second half of the twentieth century. The exponential growth in microelectronic processing power and the size of dynamic memorie has been achieved by significant downscaling of the minimum feature size. Smaller feature sizes result in increased functional density, faster speed, and lower costs. In this process one is reaching the limits where quantum effects and fluctuations are beginning to play an important role.
This book reflects the achievements of the present times and future directions of research on nanoscopic dimensions. ... Read more

Book Description
Modern fabrication techniques have made it possible to produce semiconductor devices whose dimensions are so small that quantum mechanical effects dominate their behavior. This book describes the key elements of quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and solid-state physics that are necessary in understanding these modern semiconductor devices.The author begins with a review of elementary quantum mechanics, and then describes more advanced topics, such as multiple quantum wells. He then disusses equilibrium and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. Following this introduction, he provides a thorough treatment of solid-state physics, covering electron motion in periodic potentials, electron-phonon interaction, and recombination processes. The final four chapters deal exclusively with real devices, such as semiconductor lasers, photodiodes, flat panel displays, and MOSFETs. The book contains many homework exercises and is suitable as a textbook for electrical engineering, materials science, or physics students taking courses in solid-state device physics. It will also be a valuable reference for practicing engineers in optoelectronics and related areas. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

very readable text as well as a reference book
this is a very readable book on semiconductor devices that operate on quantum principles. the book starts with Schrodinger's equations, discusses in detail the different perspectives of the particle in a box problem, then gradually develops to other theories, for example the Boltzmann transport equations. other processes (impact ionization) are also covered in detail. ofcourse optical processes are not discussed as this is only a device-level book. suitable for electrical engineers to learn the basic underlying concepts that dominate the present day state-of-the-art devices.

very good introduction to the field of quantum devices
often do i refer to this book regarding any conceptual clarification on quantum phenomena. people who do research in this field may find this book as a good reference. it is written more for the electrical engineers who like to delve more into the quantum realities. provides a very good introduction to the quantum theories that one needs to know to study different state-of-the art devices. although not that much details is covered on the devices but it creates the much needed background on theory. it starts from Schrodinger equations and then gradually builds the other related concepts. for example detail discussion is given on Boltzmann transport equations. its an easy reading. ... Read more

Book Description
This well-established monograph, updated and now in its ninth edition, deals mainly with electron transport in, and optical properties of semiconductors. It includes lasers, e.g. the quantum cascade laser, quantum processes such as the quantum Hall effect, quantum dots, fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, molecular electronics, the nitrides, and many other recent discoveries in the field. New diagrams and tables provide a comprehensive source of materials data. Selected problems help readers to consolidate their knowledge and invite teachers to use this text for graduate courses on semiconductor physics, solid statephysics, and physical electronics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Useful for experimentalists
As a graduate student in semiconductor physics, this was one of my favourite texts. A good sophisticated explanation of its subject, that went beyond an introductory text in solid state physics, like Kittel's book or that by Ashcroft and Mermin.

It strikes a nice balance between a purely theoretical book on condensed matter and an empirical-tending experimentalist text. The theoretical explanations presented here will be readily understandable to experimentalists, without having to wade through reams of renormalisation theory.

Perhaps the biggest inadequacy, to some, is the treatment, or lack thereof, of high temperature superconductors. Ah well, that subject is important enough that you probably should get texts devoted exclusively to it.

Interested in transport theory?
If you are interested in semi-classical charge and energy transport theory in semiconductors, Seeger is still the best book to learn from.For experimentalists, this book is a boon since many formulaes are given in "reduced" forms - just plug in material constants and get a numerical value. ... Read more

Product Description

Micro- and Opto-Electronic Materials and Structures: Physics, Mechanics, Design, Reliability, Packaging is the first comprehensive reference to collect and present the most, up-to-date, in-depth, practical and easy-to-use information on the physics, mechanics, reliability and packaging of micro- and opto-electronic materials, assemblies, structures and systems. The chapters in these two volumes contain summaries of the state-of-the-art and present new information on recently developed important methods or devices. Furthermore,practical recommendations are offered on how to successfully apply current knowledge and recently developed technology to design, manufacture and operate viable, reliable and cost-effective electronic components or photonic devices. The emphasis is on the science and engineering of electronic and photonic packaging, on physical design problems, challenges and solutions.

Book Description
In this new work, the focus is on the dynamical response ofmetal electrons to several types of incident electromagnetic fields.The author, an eminent theorist, discusses Time-Dependent LocalDensity Approximation's importance in both elucidating electronicsurface excitations and describing the ground state properties ofelectronic systems. Chapters detail theoretical formulations andcomputational procedures, covering such areas as single-particle andcollective modes, spatial distribution of the induced surface charges,and local electric fields. Excitation spectra are shown for a varietyof clean simple metals, noble metals, chemisorbed overlayers, chargedsurfaces, and small metal particles. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

non-destructive diagnosis of surface properties
Liebsch gives us an authoritative review of the theory of electronic excitations on the surfaces of various metals. Understanding surface behaviour has always been harder than classical studies of the interior of crystalline metals, since the surface presents a break in the spatial symmetry. The text explains the various quantum mechanical models that have been developed for surfaces.

Then it shows how excitations might be induced on those surface functions. Often by incident light, that might be monochromatic and polarised. Hence there are phenomena like surface plasmons. By studying the reflected or transmitted light, as a function of various variables like angle of incidence, various properties might be inferred of the surface. This can be done in a non-destructive manner. Which enhances its value as a diagnostic tool. ... Read more