Department of Physics and Astrophysics

University of Delhi

Tutorial sheet 7: Solid State Physics, PH-CT 409, M.Sc./II Sem, 25.4.2020

1. Describe the origin of the periodic potential field by electron in a crystalline solid.

2. If the wave-function Ψ(x) represents an electron in a crystalline solid, what should be its
nature?

3. From the Kronig-Penney model, describe if the energy bands increases or decreases as the
energy of the electron is increased

4. Using the Kronig-Penney model, show that for P << 1, the energy of the lowest band is

h̄2 P
E= . (1)
ma2

5. Calculate the free energy of a phonon mode of frequency ω in terms of temperature T .

Start from the partition function and express your answer in terms of a sinh function.

6. For a delta-function potential and with P << 1, find the energy of the lowest energy band
at k = 0. From this calculate the energy gap at k = π/a.

7. Consider electrons of mass m that are confined to one dimension and subject to a weak
periodic potential described by

V (x) = V0 + V1 cos(2πx/a) + V2 cos(4πx/a) + · · ·

(a) Under what conditions will the nearly free-electron approximation will work? Assum-
ing that the condition is satisfied, sketch the three lowest energy bands in the first
Brillouin zone.
(b) Calculate (to first order) the energy gap at k = π/a between the first and the second
band, and at k = 0 between the second and the third band.