Course content

Nanotechnology facilitates the creation of electronic devices so small that both the particle and the wave nature of the electrons are important. This enables the discovery of several new physical phenomena and some of these can be used in modern nano-electronics devices. This course will discuss some of the key nano-scale electronic phenomena and both approaches from classical physics and quantum physics will be used. Relevant topics are e.g.: quantized conductance, Coulomb blockade, Büttiker-Landauer-formalism, weak localization, universal conductance fluctuations, quantum Hall effect, Aharonov-Bohm effect, giant magnetoresistance, graphene.

Learning outcome

The student shall, with relatively simple physical models applied to recent experimental results, learn how basic physics can be used to describe and understand the behavior of electrons in nano-scale materials. The course will hopefully motivate for further theoretical and experimental studies of electron transport in nano-scale materials.
Knowledge: The student should know key effects and phenomena within electron transport in nano-scale materials.
Skills: The student should learn how to analyze effects and phenomena within nanophysics by applying basic classical physics and quantum mechanics, standard mathematical methods, and simple numerical computations.
General competence: The student will learn to find, read, and convey the contents of literature near the research front within the field of nanophysics.

Learning methods and activities

Lectures and calculation exercises. The re-sit examination (in August) may be changed from written to oral.

Recommended previous knowledge

Basic knowledge of physics, including quantum mechanics and solid state physics.

Required previous knowledge

None.

Course materials

Will be announced when the course begins.

Credit reductions