Diffusion In Condensed Matter

This comprehensive, handbook-style survey of diffusion in condensed matter gives detailed insight into diffusion as the process of particle transport due to stochastic movement. It is understood and presented as a phenomenon of crucial relevance for a large variety of processes and materials. In this book, all aspects of the theoretical fundamentals, experimental techniques, highlights of current developments and results for solids, liquids and interfaces are presented.

This special issue of “Solid State Phenomena” documents some novel experimental and theoretical approaches applied to fascinating materials. Motivated by the increasing need to synthesize and understand the properties of technologically important materials, this issue represents an important step forward in improving our understanding of how modern materials can be optimised for technology and industry. The issue comprises 9 original review papers covering experimental approaches and theoretical modeling. The contributions will be very useful to researchers working in various areas of CMP and will contribute significantly to the understanding of rapidly developing materials with regard to their synthesis, characterization and properties.

Within a unifying framework, Diffusion: Formalism and Applications covers both classical and quantum domains, along with numerous applications. The author explores the more than two centuries-old history of diffusion, expertly weaving together a variety of topics from physics, mathematics, chemistry, and biology. The book examines the two distinct paradigms of diffusion—physical and stochastic—introduced by Fourier and Laplace and later unified by Einstein in his groundbreaking work on Brownian motion. The author describes the role of diffusion in probability theory and stochastic calculus and discusses topics in materials science and metallurgy, such as defect-diffusion, radiation damage, and spinodal decomposition. In addition, he addresses the impact of translational/rotational diffusion on experimental data and covers reaction-diffusion equations in biology. Focusing on diffusion in the quantum domain, the book also investigates dissipative tunneling, Landau diamagnetism, coherence-to-decoherence transition, quantum information processes, and electron localization.

The usefulness of the book to the reader is exposure to many different classes of materials and relaxation phenomena. They are tied together by the universal relaxation and diffusion properties they share, and a consistent explanation of their origin. The readers can apply what they learn to solve their own problems and use it as a stepping-stone to make further advances in theoretical understanding of the origin of the universality.

Now updated—the leading single-volume introduction to solid state and soft condensed matter physics This Second Edition of the unified treatment of condensed matter physics keeps the best of the first, providing a basic foundation in the subject while addressing many recent discoveries. Comprehensive and authoritative, it consolidates the critical advances of the past fifty years, bringing together an exciting collection of new and classic topics, dozens of new figures, and new experimental data. This updated edition offers a thorough treatment of such basic topics as band theory, transport theory, and semiconductor physics, as well as more modern areas such as quasicrystals, dynamics of phase separation, granular materials, quantum dots, Berry phases, the quantum Hall effect, and Luttinger liquids. In addition to careful study of electron dynamics, electronics, and superconductivity, there is much material drawn from soft matter physics, including liquid crystals, polymers, and fluid dynamics. Provides frequent comparison of theory and experiment, both when they agree and when problems are still unsolved Incorporates many new images from experiments Provides end-of-chapter problems including computational exercises Includes more than fifty data tables and a detailed forty-page index Offers a solutions manual for instructors Featuring 370 figures and more than 1,000 recent and historically significant references, this volume serves as a valuable resource for graduate and undergraduate students in physics, physics professionals, engineers, applied mathematicians, materials scientists, and researchers in other fields who want to learn about the quantum and atomic underpinnings of materials science from a modern point of view.

This book provides a contemporary treatment of the problems related to anomalous diffusion and anomalous relaxation. It collects and promotes unprecedented applications dealing with diffusion problems and surface effects, adsorption-desorption phenomena, memory effects, reaction-diffusion equations, and relaxation in constrained structures of classical and quantum processes. The topics covered by the book are of current interest and comprehensive range, including concepts in diffusion and stochastic physics, random walks, and elements of fractional calculus. They are accompanied by a detailed exposition of the mathematical techniques intended to serve the reader as a tool to handle modern boundary value problems. This self-contained text can be used as a reference source for graduates and researchers working in applied mathematics, physics of complex systems and fluids, condensed matter physics, statistical physics, chemistry, chemical and electrical engineering, biology, and many others.

A selection of papers by Pierre-Gilles de Gennes - 1991 Nobel Prize winner in Physics - which have had a long-lasting impact on our understanding of condensed matter. Ideas on polymers, liquid crystals and interfaces are described. The author has added some afterthoughts to the main papers.