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Phys 460 Homework # 5

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Due Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2006

  1. Consider 1 mole of Al which has the Debye temperature given in the table in Kittel. Calculate the energy in J required to raise the temperature from (a) T=0K to T=10K and (b) T=0K to T=300K . In each case give the result if you use i) the Dulong-Petit classical specific heat and ii) the quantum expresion for the specific heat in the Debye approximation. (Explain how you carry out the calculations. If you have difficulty in finding an analytic expression for the energy in the Debye approximation, you may use an approximate integration of the curve given in Kittel chapter 5, figure 7.)
  2. Using the Debye temperatures for diamond carbon and silicon given in Kittel, for each material compute the average sound velocity that appears in the expression for the Debye temperature. Compare the values to the longitudinal sound velocity in the (100) direction that can be found from the elastic constants in Chapter 3.
  3. What energy phonons contribute most to the heat capacity at temperature T which is much below the Debye temperature? (Hint: examine the form of the integrand in Eq. 30 of Chapter 5.)
  4. Estimate the root mean square displacememt Delta xrms for an atom using the formulas given in class (lecture notes 9 - not given in Kittel - the main formulas are repeated here). Use the mass of a Al atom and the estimate C = 100 eV/nm2 (the same as was given in problem set 4).
    (a) Find an estimate of the T=0 zero point Delta xrms. The analysis in the lecture notes led to the estimate (hbar^2/CM)1/4.
    (b) Find an estimate for T=1000K using the high temperature estimate (2kBT/C)1/2.
    (c) Compare the values with the nearest neighbor distance in Al.
  5. Kittel, Problem 5-1.
  6. Consider two crystals of identical size and shape but Debye temperatures differing by a factor of 2. In the low temperature regime, where the thermal conductivity is limited by the surface scattering, what is the ratio of the thermal conductivities of the two crystals.

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