THE STATE UNIVERSITY ZANZIBAR

SCHOOL OF NATURAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL SCIENCE

THIRD YEAR FIRST SEMESTER EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE WITH EDUCATION – 2013/2014

PH 301: SOLID STATE PHYSICS

DATE: Tuesday, 04th February 2014 TIME: 02: 00 PM – 5: 00 PM

INSTRUCTIONS

1. This paper consists of NINE (09) questions.

2. Answer ALL questions in Section A and any THREE questions from Section B.
3. Write your Examination number on your answer booklet(s).
4. Cellular phones are NOT allowed in the examination room.
5. All necessary working MUST be CLEARLY shown.

6. The following information may be used if necessary:

Planck’s constant,
Mass of an electron,
Charge of an electron,
Avogadro’s number,

Boltzmann constant,
Atomic weight of copper = 63.54
1 nm = 10-9 m

This paper consists of FOUR (4) printed pages

1
 SECTION A

Answer ALL questions in this section

QUESTION ONE

a) What are Miller indices? (02 Marks)

b) How are they determined? (04 Marks)

QUESTION TWO

a) Explain the following terms as applied to crystals:

(i) Atomic radius (ii) Nearest neighbour distance (02 Marks)

b) Lead is fcc. If r and a are the radius of the lead atom and lattice parameter

respectively. Find the relation between a and r. (04 Marks)

QUESTION THREE

a) Draw the (112) and (120) planes of an fcc structure. (03 Marks)

b) Show that the atomic packing factor for fcc and hcp metals is the same. (03 Marks)

QUESTION FOUR

a) Magnesium has hcp structure. The radius of magnesium atom is 0.1605 nm. Calculate

the volume of unit cell of magnesium. (03 Marks)

b) Show that the maximum radius of the sphere that can just fit into the void at the body

centre of the fcc structure coordinated by the facial atoms is 0.414r, where r is the

radius of the atom. (03 Marks)

2
 SECTION B

Answer ANY THREE questions in this section

QUESTION FIVE

Obtain Bragg’s equation for x-rays. Then apply the necessary correction for the x-rays

equation. (04 Marks)

An electron initially at rest is accelerated through a p.d. of 5000 V. Calculate (i) the

momentum (ii) de Broglie wavelength and (iii) wave number. Also calculate the Bragg’s

angle for first order reflection from (111) planes which are 0.2 nm apart. (08 Marks)

QUESTION SIX

Copper has a density of 8.95 x 103 kg/m3 and an electrical conductivity 6.4 x 107 ohm-1m-1 at

room temperature. Calculate (a) the mean free time (b) Fermi energy (b) the Fermi velocity

(d) the mean free path at the Fermi level. (12 Marks)

QUESTION SEVEN

a) What would be the effect on the specific heat of solids at room temperature if

Planck’s constant were increased ten fold? (06 Marks)

b) The Debye temperature of carbon (diamond structure) is 1850 K. Calculate the

specific heat per kmol for diamond at 20 K. Also compute the highest lattice

frequency involved in the Debye theory. (06 Marks)

QUESTION EIGHT

Give the assumptions of classical theory of lattice specific heat. (04 Marks)

Get the expression for the frequency of a classical oscillator. (04 Marks)

Show that at low temperature Cv varies directly as T3. (04 Marks)

3
QUESTION NINE

Obtain an expression for the specific heat of a solid on the basis of:

a) Einstein’s theory. (05 Marks)

b) Debye’s theory. (05 Marks)

c) How far do the results from these theories agree with experimental data? (02 Marks)