Given a scientific article review it and be ready to discuss it.

Logistics:

1. Choose suitable article in advance (should cover concepts listed below)
2. Deliver article content in 2-min elevator pitch
3. Answer technical questions (5 min, for concepts not covered in the article you will get questions out of its scope)

Evaluation:

• (1 point) Ability to understand the article
• (1 point) Ability to present scientific content
• (1 point) Understanding of technical information (figures, formulas, symbols etc)
• (2 points) Knowledge of fundamentals of Materials Science according to the list below (preferably in the context of the article)

After lectures 1-4 you are supposed to be familiar with the following concepts (at 50% level of coverage):

Basics

• Scales: atomistic, mesoscopic, device; science, engineering, technology
• Classification by composition: valence, shells, electronegativity
• Classification by structure: crystals, polycrystals, quasicrystals, liquids, glasses, amorphous solids, surfaces and low-dimensional materials, polymers, mixtures and nanostructured materials
• Classification by properties: metals, semi-metals, semiconductors, insulators, ionic conductors, piezoelectrics, pyroelectrics etc.
• Bonding: covalent, ionic, metallic, other types of interaction (molecular solids, liquid crystals)
• Interatomic interaction: pairwise vs. collective, chemical vs. physical, empirical potentials and force fields

Atomistic structure

• Symmetry elements, point group, space group, generators, notations
• Bravais lattice, motif (atomic positions), fundamental domain (asymmetric unit, atomic basis), lattice centering
• Crystal class, lattice system vs. crystal system, crystal family
• Unit cell, primitive cell, Wigner-Seitz cell, Bravais unit cell
• Lattice coordinates, Miller indices, Wyckoff positions
• Structure visualization: XYZ/PDB/CIF file formats, coordination, polyhedral representation
• Structure factor and radial distribution function
• Structure determination: X-ray/neutron/electron diffraction, TEM, AFM/STM

Electronic structure

• Schrodinger equation and wave-function, eigenenergies/eigenfunctions, probabilistic interpretation
• Multielectron systems: one-electron energies and orbitals, mean-field/DFT and strongly correlated systems
• Quantum numbers: N (chemical potential and Fermi energy), Q (anion/cation), L/M (AO:l,m;s,px,py,pz,dxy,dxz,dyz,dz2,dx2-y2,f), S (singlet/triplet), Sz, J, k (wave-vector), n (principal quantum number)
• Orbitals: atomic, molecular, localized molecular, natural, natural transition
• Electronic structure of atoms and molecules, HOMO/LUMO, IP/EA, excitations, orbital symmetries
• Bonding: chemical (coupling and resonance), tight binding method, orbital hybridization, valence and core electrons, pseudopotential, hypervalency
• Reciprocal lattice, Brillouin zone
• Electronic structure of crystals, wavefunction, energy bands, DOS, effective mass, VB/CB, band gap, Fermi surface
• Total energy of molecules and solids and its partitioning, thermodynamic energies, cohesion energy
• Born-Oppenheimer approximation
• Phonons, acoustic and optical modes, phonon dispersion, electron-phonon interaction, polaron
• Electric polarization and current, light absorption/emission, polariton, plasmon, magnetic phenomena
• Electronic quasiparticles: electron, hole, Frenkel exciton, polaron, Frenkel polaron, electron in metal, polariton, plasmon, Cooper pair
• Defects, localized/delocalized states, doping

Structural motifs

• Coordination number, coordination polyhedron, packing factor
• Close packed lattices, ABC notations
• Ionic lattices, Madelung constant
• Covalent crystals
• Molecular solids
• Defects
• Structural types: A1 (fcc), A2 (bcc), A3 (hcp), A4 (dia), B1 (rock salt), B2 (cesium chloride), B3 (zincblende), B4 (wurtzite), E2₁ (perovskite)
• Surfaces and adatoms: notations, energetics, surface relaxation and reconstruction, notations (stepped surfaces, surface coverage, Woods notations)
• Structural transitions, phase diagrams, polymorphism