PHYSICS 140B
Properties of Solids
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: course 140A. Elementary discussion of properties of solids. Use of theory of electrons and the lattice to examine properties of semiconductors, metals, and superconductors, together with magnetic and dielectric properties of materials. Properties of noncrystalline solids. Letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Stuart Brown has a nice personality, but his teaching styles are a bit deficient. He is an experimentalist, so he is much more knowledgeable about experimental psychics than theoretical physics. He taught the class with his own handouts, instead of using the book, and there were habitual inconsistencies in the formulation of his formulas in these handouts. Sometimes it seems he would change some notation throughout the prepared paper. I would really recommend physics students to take the 140B class from a theoretical physicist instead of an experimentalist.
Stuart Brown has a nice personality, but his teaching styles are a bit deficient. He is an experimentalist, so he is much more knowledgeable about experimental psychics than theoretical physics. He taught the class with his own handouts, instead of using the book, and there were habitual inconsistencies in the formulation of his formulas in these handouts. Sometimes it seems he would change some notation throughout the prepared paper. I would really recommend physics students to take the 140B class from a theoretical physicist instead of an experimentalist.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - This is a late review after I have taken a lot more classes and had a much deeper understanding of condensed matter physics. The course is divided into two parts, Integer Quantum Hall Effect and Superconductivity (London Equations, Ginzburg-Landau theory, and Josephson Effect). Prof. Kogar has done a great job introducing these two topics to guys who only know basic solid state physics. He had a well-written lecture note instead of textbooks and the lectures were illustrated in an "experimentalist" way (no long derivations and focus on the physical picture). Apparently, given the time (10 weeks only) and level (undergraduate) restrictions, he had to cheat on something, but he was always happy to chat about them in OH or through email (see if you can find them!). You can master the materials as long as you work out the excellent problem sets by yourself. It's really well written that you feel like you are guided step-by-step to tackle a complicated problem. My only concern (not for this course) is, the Physics 140 series here did not cover enough materials for students to get prepared for CM Physics in graduate school. For example, I think second quantization is quite useful. Overall, I really thank Prof. Kogar and his course for telling me the picture of these two really important phenomena in CM Physics without bothering from the long and hard mathematical derivations, and I strongly recommend every student who is interested in CM physics take this course.
Winter 2022 - This is a late review after I have taken a lot more classes and had a much deeper understanding of condensed matter physics. The course is divided into two parts, Integer Quantum Hall Effect and Superconductivity (London Equations, Ginzburg-Landau theory, and Josephson Effect). Prof. Kogar has done a great job introducing these two topics to guys who only know basic solid state physics. He had a well-written lecture note instead of textbooks and the lectures were illustrated in an "experimentalist" way (no long derivations and focus on the physical picture). Apparently, given the time (10 weeks only) and level (undergraduate) restrictions, he had to cheat on something, but he was always happy to chat about them in OH or through email (see if you can find them!). You can master the materials as long as you work out the excellent problem sets by yourself. It's really well written that you feel like you are guided step-by-step to tackle a complicated problem. My only concern (not for this course) is, the Physics 140 series here did not cover enough materials for students to get prepared for CM Physics in graduate school. For example, I think second quantization is quite useful. Overall, I really thank Prof. Kogar and his course for telling me the picture of these two really important phenomena in CM Physics without bothering from the long and hard mathematical derivations, and I strongly recommend every student who is interested in CM physics take this course.
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