You May Not Start To Read The Questions Printed On The Subsequent Pages of This Question Paper Until Instructed That You May Do So by The Invigilator

NATURAL SCIENCES TRIPOS Part II
Thursday 29 May 2003 9 to 12

EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL PHYSICS (2)
Attempt the whole of Section A, two questions from Section B and
two questions from Section C.
Answers from Section A should be tied up in a single bundle, with the
letter A written clearly on the cover sheet. Answers to each
question from Sections B and C should be tied up separately with the
number of the question written clearly on the cover sheet.
Sections A and B will each carry approximately a quarter of the total
marks. The approximate number of marks allocated to each part
of a question in Section C is indicated in the right margin. The
paper contains 6 sides and is accompanied by a book giving values of
constants and containing mathematical formulae which you may
quote without proof.
You may not start to read the questions
printed on the subsequent pages of this
question paper until instructed that you
may do so by the Invigilator.
D2
2
SECTION A
Answers should be concise, and relevant formulae may be assumed
without proof. All questions carry an equal amount of credit.
A1 It is found experimentally that the tension force F of a stretched plastic rod
is related to the length l by F = aT
2
(l l
0
), where a is a positive constant, T is
the temperature and l
0
is the unstretched length of the rod. Use a Maxwell
relation to show that

S
l
T
= 2aT(l l
0
) .
A2 The following plot of the latent heat of melting versus melting temperature
shows that monatomic solids fall on a dierent line from diatomic solids (in which
the molecules retain their identity in both the solid and liquid phases). Explain
the slope of the two lines.
A3 Why can light-emitting diodes be made from gallium arsenide but not from
silicon?
A4 Explain what a plasmon is and describe how it is observed experimentally.
A5 It is desired to take as sharp a photograph as possible of a distant object
with a pinhole camera in which the plate is 10 cm from the pinhole. What
diameter should the pinhole be?
A6 Light of wavelength 400 nm falling on a metal surface ejects electrons with a
maximum energy of 1.0 eV. What is the longest wavelength of light for which
electrons will be emitted?
D2
3
SECTION B
B7 Write brief notes on two of the following:
(a) the ideal Bose gas at low temperatures;
(b) the classical statistical mechanics of liquids;
(c) elementary excitations in solids and quantum liquids.
B8 Write an essay on the concept of an ensemble in statistical mechanics. In
your discussion you should include the three dierent kinds of ensemble and, for
each ensemble, the appropriate constraints, the corresponding distribution
functions and applications.
B9 Write brief notes on two of the following:
(a) magnetic domains and hysteresis in ferromagnetism;
(b) the junction eld eect transistor;
(c) the hydrogenic model of dopants in semiconductors.
B10 Write an essay describing how the presence of a periodic potential in a
crystal modies the motion of electrons. Include a description of Bragg reection,
the variation of the electron energy, group velocity and eective mass as a function
of wavevector and explain the dierence between a metal and an insulator.
SECTION C
C11 The grand partition function of a system at xed volume and
temperature, but having variable particle number, may be written
=
i
e
(E
i
N
i
)
,
where the sum is over the states i of the system, 1/ = k
B
T, E
i
is the total energy
and N
i
is the number of particles. Show that, for non-interacting fermions, the
average occupancy of a one-particle quantum level of energy in contact with a
particle reservoir is
N =
1
e
()
+ 1
.
[6]
Explain why the grand potential (T, V, ) = k
B
T ln for a system of
many non-interacting particles may be written as the sum of independent
contributions from all of the single-particle quantum levels. [3]
D2
(TURN OVER for continuation of question C11
4
It is possible to put uid monolayers of
3
He atoms on a at surface of
pyrolytic graphite. At low density and low temperature this system can be treated
as a two-dimensional ideal gas of spin-
1
2
fermions. Show, for such a two-dimensional
Fermi gas, that the Fermi energy
F
and the Fermi wavevector k
F
are given by
F
=
N
A
h
2
m
; k
F
=
2N
A
1/2
,
[6]
where A is the area, N the number of particles and m is their mass. At a coverage
of 1
3
He atom per nm
2
, what is the Fermi temperature T
F
? [3]
Show that the total energy of the system at temperature T T
F
is given by
U
1
2
N
F
+

2
6
Nk
2
B
T
2
F
and that, in this limit, the specic heat per unit area, measured at constant
density, is independent of the magnitude of k
F
. Comment on this result. [7]
[You may quote the following approximation for the integrals over the Fermi
function in the low T limit

0
d
f()
e
()
+ 1

F
0
d f() +

2
6
(k
B
T)
2
f
(
F
) +. . . ]
C12 Explain how the formula F = k
B
T ln Z can be used to obtain
thermodynamic quantities from the partition function Z. [6]
The partition function of a van der Waals gas of particle number N, volume
V and temperature T = 1/k
B
can be written as
Z
1
N!
m
2h
2
3N/2
(V Nb)
N
exp(aN
2
/V ) .
Explain the meaning of the constants a and b and the origin of the factorial term. [4]
Starting from this expression for Z, show that the equation of state of a van
der Waals gas is
P =
Nk
B
T
V Nb

aN
2
V
2
.
[5]
Find the expression for the chemical potential of the van der Waals gas as a
function of N, T, V and show that this reduces in the low density limit to the ideal
gas expression
ideal
= k
B
T ln
N
V n
Q
(T)
,
where n
Q
(T) = (mk
B
T/2h
2
)
3/2
. [6]
Show that, in the high density limit,

Nbk
B
T
V Nb
.
[4]
D2
5
C13 The density of states (per unit energy and volume) of a 3-dimensional
free-electron gas at the Fermi surface is given by:
g(
F
) =
3
2
n
F
,
where
F
is the Fermi energy and n is the number density.
Explain briey why the specic heat C
e
of the electron gas in a metal at
temperature T T
F
, where T
F
is the Fermi temperature, is of the form (it is not
necessary to evaluate the prefactor exactly):
C
e
=

2
nk
B
2
k
B
T
.
[6]
Show that the electrical conductivity of a metal can be expressed as
=
ne
2
mv
F
,
where is the mean free path, m the mass of a conduction electron and v
F
is the
Fermi velocity. [6]
Using an argument from the kinetic theory of gases, justify briey the
expression K =
1
3
C
e
v
F
for the thermal conductivity and hence derive the
Wiedemann-Franz law:
K
=

2
k
2
B
T
3e
2
.
[5]
The electrical resistance of a silver wire of uniform cross-sectional area has
value 0.01 and is independent of temperature below 10 K. The wire is installed
in a cryogenic system where one end of it is at a temperature 20 mK and the other
is at 5 mK. Calculate the heat ow per unit time along the wire, given that the
Wiedemann-Franz law is obeyed for silver below 10 K. [8]
[The thermal conductivity K is dened by the equation J = KdT/dx, where J is
the heat ux per unit area and T is the temperature.]
C14 Describe the Hall eect in a semiconductor containing one type of carrier
and derive an expression for the Hall coecient R
H
. Explain how the Hall eect is
used to measure the carrier concentration and to determine the carrier type. [7]
For a semiconductor sample containing both electrons and holes the Hall
coecient is given by:
R
H
=
p
2
h
n
2
e
e(p
h
+n
e
)
2
,
where n and p are the concentrations and
e
and
h
are the mobilities of the
electrons and holes.
D2
(TURN OVER for continuation of question C14
6
The gures below show the Hall coecient plotted as a function of
(temperature)
1
for two samples of indium antimonide (InSb), one doped with
donors and the other with acceptors. For InSb,
e
/
h
has a value of approximately
80.
Explain the general form of the data for InSb doped with donors. [4]
Estimate the bandgap of InSb and nd a value for the donor concentration. [6]
Discuss qualitatively what happens to R
H
as the temperature is reduced
below the values shown. [3]
Discuss the form of the data for InSb doped with acceptors and nd a value
for the acceptor concentration in the sample. [5]
D2

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NATURAL SCIENCES TRIPOS Part II

Thursday 29 May 2003 9 to 12

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