THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF ZANZIBAR

SCHOOL OF NATURAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL SCIENCE

SECOND YEAR SECOND SEMESTER SUPPLEMENTARY EXAMINATION FOR

THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE WITH EDUCATION – 2015/2016

PH 3102: SOLID STATE PHYSICS

DATE: 06th October, 2016 TIME: 03 Hours

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 shown CLEARLY.

6. The following information may be used if necessary:

Plank’s constant
Mass of an electron
Charge of an electron
Avogadro’s number
Density of aluminium = 2700 kg/m3
Atomic weight of aluminium
Boltzmann constant
Fermi energy of copper = 7 eV
Debye temperature of copper = 348 K.

This paper consists of FOUR (4) printed pages

1
 SECTION A

Answer ALL questions in this section

QUESTION ONE

Define the following terms used in crystalography:

(a) Lattice (02 Marks)

(b) Primitive cell (02 Marks)

(c) Unit cell (02 Marks)

QUESTION TWO

Give the assumptions of the classical theory of lattice specific heat. (06 Marks)

QUESTION THREE

Obtain the Miller indices of a plane which intercepts at a, b/2, 3c in a simple cubic unit cell.

Draw a neat diagram showing the plane. (06 Marks)

QUESTION FOUR

Show that the classical value of the electronic molar heat capacity of all metals is

approximately 12.5 kJ/kmol/K. (06 Marks)

2
 SECTION B

Answer only THREE questions in this section

QUESTION FIVE

a) Electrons are accelerated by 344 V and are reflected from a crystal. The first

reflection maximum occurs when the glancing angle is 60°. Determine the

wavelength of electron beam and spacing of the crystal. (06 Marks)

b) Calculate the mean free path of potassium, if its Fermi energy is 2.1 eV and the

electrical conductivity is . (06

Marks)

QUESTION SIX

The resistivity of aluminium at room temperature is m. Calculate:

a) the drift velocity of the conduction electrons in a field of 50Vm-1. (03 Marks)

b) their mobility. (03 Marks)

c) their relaxation time and (03 Marks)

d) mean free path on the basis of classical free electron theory. (03 Marks)

QUESTION SEVEN

Show that the packing factor for body centered cubic (bcc) and face centered cubic (fcc)

structures are and respectively. (12

Marks)

QUESTION EIGHT

3
 a) Show that the Einstein’s relation for the heat capacity per kmol of a solid reduced to

the classical value of when . (06 Marks)

b) Calculate the electronic specific heat of kmol of copper at 300K. At what low

temperature are the electronic and lattice specific heats of copper equal to one

another? (06 Marks)

QUESTION NINE

Sketch part of a simple cubic lattice and indicate on it the (1 0 0) and (1 1 1) planes. For such

a lattice of spherical atoms, radius 0.16 nm, calculate the areal density (atoms/m 2) on each of

these planes. (12 Marks)