Physics 141B

S. G. Louie

Midterm Exam #1

Spring 2010
February 24, 2010

NOTE: This is a closed book exam. One sheet of notes is allowed. Please do all 3 problems and note
that there is a total of 50 points and the problems are not of equal weight. Display your answers clearly
(e.g., in a box) and cross out any work that you do not wish to have graded.
1. For an alkali metal with electron mass m* = me and density n = 2 x 1022/cm3: (15 points)
(a) Assuming a free-electron model, calculate the period of oscillation in a de Haas-van Alphen
experiment for this material at a B field of 1 tesla or 10 kilogauss. (5 points)
(b) What is the area in real space of the extremal orbit in (a)? (5 points)
(c) Calculate the photon wavelength in Angstrom (or energy in eV) at which the metal becomes
transparent to electromagnetic waves. (5 points)
2. Describe in a few sentences (together with formulas if necessary) the following: (15 points)
(a) What is a plasmon? How could one measure the energy of a plasmon in a solid such as Si?
(5 points)
(b) Explain why there are no traveling transverse electromagnetic waves allowed in an infinite alkali
halide crystal between the two optical phonon frequencies, T and L. (5 points)
(c) How one can experimentally determine: i) whether a semiconductor is n-type or p-type, and ii) the
mobility, , of the carriers in a semiconductor? (5 points)
3. Tight-binding band structure of 1D chain with 2 atoms/unit cell. (20 points)
Let us consider an one-dimensional crystal with two atoms per unit cell. The two basis atoms 1 and 2
are equally spaced, i.e. they are located at positions 0 and a/2 in the primitive unit cell, respectively,
where a is the lattice constant. Atom 1 has an s orbital on it and atom 2 has a px orbital on it (with
the x-direction being the direction of the chain), as illustrated below.

(a) Within the tight-binding model, how many bands are there in the band structure for the above
system? Explain your answer. (6 points)
(b) Using the tight-binding method and only nearest-neighbor interactions (you may assume the
overlap matrix is the unity matrix and that the onsite energy (integral on the same atom) for the
two atoms in the unit cell is the same and has the value of zero), obtain the expression of the
matrix eigenvalue equation for a given wavevector k from which one can obtain the band
structure En(k). Please define clearly all the relevant parameters. (7 points)
(c) Calculate and sketch the band structure En(k) using the results from (b). (7 points)
END OF EXAM