NANO 500: Introduction to Nanomaterials and Interactions

Fall 2006

Instructor

Dr. Boris Veytsman. E-mail: bveytsma-at-gmu.edu, office: Research I, room 367

Class meetings:

Research I, room 301, Mondays 6:30-9:10 PM

Scope

Introduction to nanotechnology. Discussion of the Feynman challenge and its relation to modern science. Atoms and states; a review of quantum mechanics; energy levels; excitations. Includes light absorption and luminescence; covalent and hydrogen bonds in nanostructures and polymers; conformations of polymers; random walks; biological nanostructures and bio-inspired self-assembly. Discussion covers collective effects in nanostructures; one-dimensional lattices; delocalization; electron spectrum; proton excitations. Emphasis on two-dimensional and three-dimensional lattices. Applications to nanostructures of charges, currents, diamagnetics, paramagnetics and ferromagnetics.

Grading

Assignments: 30%; Midterm: 30%; Final: 40%

Literature

  1. Schiff, L.I.   Quantum Mechanics
  2. Kittel, C.   Introduction to Solid State Physics
  3. Davies, J.H.   The physics of Low-Dimensional Semiconductors: An Introduction
  4. Handbook of Nanoscience, Engineering and Technology. Ed. by William A. Goddard III, Donald W. Brenner, Sergey Edward Lyshevsky, and Gerald J. Iafrate

Week by week syllabus:

  1. Introduction To Nanotechnology
    Additional Reading:
    1. Richard P. Feynman. There's plenty of room at the bottom: An invitation to enter a new field of physics. Eng. & Sci., XXIII (5): 22--36, 1960
    2. Karl Hess. Room at the bottom, plenty of tyranny at the top. In: Handbook of Nanoscience, Engineering and Technology. Ed. by William A. Goddard III, Donald W. Brenner, Sergey Edward Lyshevsky, and Gerald J. Iafrate
  2. Quantum Mechanics Refreshment
  3. Free Particles. Flow And Current
  4. Quantum Tunneling And Resonance Transmission
  5. A Simple Memory Element And Perturbation Theory
  6. Atoms, Molecules And Forces
  7. Electrons And Lattices: The Origin Of Electron Bands
  8. Symmetry And Spin
  9. Statistics Of Fermi Systems I
  10. Statistics Of Fermi Systems II.  Density Of States
  11. Simple Theory Of Vertical Quantum Dots
    Additional Reading:
    L. P. Kouwenhoven, D. G. Austing, and S. Tarucha.   Few-electron quantum dots. Rep. Progr. Phys., 64 (6): 701--736, 2001
  12. Conductance Of A Quantum Dot
    Additional Reading:
    1. C. W. J. Beenakker.   Theory of Coulomb-blockade oscillations in the conductance of a quantum dot.   Phys. Rev. B, 44 (4): 1646--1656, 1991.
    2. C. W. J. Beenakker, H. van Houten, and A. A. M. Staring.   Influence of Coulomb repulsion on the Aharonov-Bohm effect in a quantum dot.   Phys. Rev. B, 44 (4): 1657--1662, 1991.
    3. W. G. van der Wiel, S. De Franceschi, T. Fujisawa, J. M. Elzerman, S. Tarucha, and L. P. Kouwenhoven.   The Kondo effect in the unitary limit.   Science, 289: 2105--2108, 2000.
  13. Introduction To Polymer Physics

Last modified: August 20, 2006