MSE 5801

Materials Structure and Electronic Properties

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

Course is intended for first year graduate students in MSE, or graduate students in other fields, needing a solid foundation in structural and electronic properties for advanced study/research in materials. Atomic and molecular structure of crystalline, molecular, semicrystalline, and amorphous materials including: crystallography and symmetry; reciprocal lattice; order and disorder; point defects. Diffraction techniques for structural characterization: Bragg's Law, structure factors; thin film and size broadening; Debye scattering; symmetry breaking. Use of tensors to describe macroscopic physical properties and connections between symmetry and properties. Electrical properties of materials including: mechanisms of conduction; band structure and correlation with crystallography; modification of electrical properties in materials; charge transport across interfaces and semiconductor junctions; interaction of materials with light; fundamental semiconductor electronic devices (e.g. diodes, MOSFETS).

Prerequisites REF-FA25/Corequisites REF-FA25 engineering math and science equivalent to MATH 2940, PHYS 2214, and CHEM 2090. Corequisites: None.

Enrollment Priority REF-FA25 Enrollment limited to: graduate students.

Last 4 terms offered (None)

Outcomes REF-FA25

• Students will demonstrate an understanding of material structure including bonding, atomic structure (crystallography) on atomic and mesoscopic length scales, for a range of materials including metals, semiconductors, oxides, glasses, and polymers using conceptual frameworks and terminology common in materials science.
• Students will demonstrate understanding of tensor properties in materials and transformation of the properties across crystal systems.
• Students will identify and analyze electronic properties of a wide range of materials (metals, semiconductors, polymers) using underlying properties including crystal structure, band structure, temperature, and processing history.
• Students will explain and analyze the behavior of common electronic materials and devices (e.g. diodes, MOSFETs) using concepts of band theory, carrier populations, and transport properties.
• Students will demonstrate an understanding of the link between material structure and underlying band diagram properties.

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