Out of the Crystal Maze: Chapters from The History of Solid State PhysicsLillian Hoddeson, Ernst Braun, Jurgen Teichmann, Spencer Weart Oxford University Press, 1992 M10 1 - 728 pages This landmark work chronicles the origin and evolution of solid state physics, which grew to maturity between 1920 and 1960. The book examines the early roots of the field in industrial, scientific and artistic efforts and traces them through the 1950s, when many physicists around the world recognized themselves as members of a distinct subfield of physics research centered on solids. The book opens with an account of scientific and social developments that preceded the discovery of quantum mechanics, including the invention of new experimental means for studying solids and the establishment of the first industrial laboratories. The authors set the stage for the modern era by detailing the formulation of the quantum field theory of solids. The core of the book examines six major themes: the band theory of solids; the phenomenology of imperfect crystals; the puzzle of the plastic properties of solids, solved by the discovery of dislocations; magnetism; semiconductor physics; and collective phenomena, the context in which old puzzles such as superconductivity and superfluidity were finally solved. All readers interested in the history of science will find this absorbing volume an essential resource for understanding the emergence of contemporary physics. |
Contents
| 3 | |
2 The Development of the Quantum Mechanical Electron Theory of Metals 19261933 | 88 |
3 The Development of the Band Theory of Solids 19331960 | 182 |
Color Centers as the Key to Imperfections | 236 |
5 Mechanical Properties of Solids | 317 |
6 Magnetism and Magnetic Materials | 359 |
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Page 8 - It may be quite true, that many of the practical and technical details of civil engineering may be best learned in the offices of engineers engaged in the execution of important works; but the knowledge of mathematics and of mechanical principles, as involved in the estimate of the strength and distribution of materials, the effects of elasticity, and generally of the operations of forces and pressures, is so necessary in all the more important and difficult applications of this science, that no...