Quantum Mechanics in Nanoscience and Engineering

Machinery of quantum mechanics described through the perspective of nanoscale phenomena for students in physics, chemistry and engineering.

Uri Peskin (Author)

9781108834902, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 June 2023

450 pages
26 x 18.2 x 2.7 cm, 1.13 kg

'With its focus on real-world phenomena at the smallest scales, this truly interdisciplinary book opens the eyes of the reader to the significance of quantum theory in the natural sciences and beyond. With its many instructive illustrations and exercises the book serves as an introductory text for undergraduate students as well as a stepping stone for future practitioners at the forefront of present-day research on open and many-particle quantum systems. It also contains a lot of up-to-date material for any lecturer who wants to modernize their course.' Frank Großmann, Technische Universität Dresden

Quantum Mechanics in Nanoscience and Engineering covers both elementary and advanced quantum mechanics within a coherent and self-contained framework. Undergraduate students of physics, chemistry and engineering will find comprehensive coverage of their introductory quantum mechanics courses, and graduate students will gain an understanding of additional tools and concepts necessary to describe real world phenomena. Each topic presented is first motivated by an experimental technique, phenomenon or concept derived directly from the realm of nanoscience and technology. The machinery of quantum mechanics is described and reinforced through the perspective of nanoscale phenomena, and in this manner practical and fundamental questions are raised and answered. The main text remains fluent and accessible by leaving technical details and mathematical proofs to guided exercises. Introductory readers may overlook these exercises, while rigorous students can benefit from reading the guidance or solving the exercises in full to strengthen and consolidate their understanding of the material.

Preface. 1. Motivation
2. The state of a system
3. Observables and operators
4. The Schrödinger equation
5. Energy quantization
6. Wave function penetration, tunneling and quantum wells
7. The continuous spectrum and scattering states
8. Mechanical vibrations and the harmonic oscillator model
9. Two-body rotation and angular momentum
10. The hydrogen-like atom
11. The postulates of quantum mechanics
12. Approximation methods
13. Many-electron systems
14. Many-atom systems
15. Quantum dynamics
16. Incoherent states
17. Quantum rate processes
18. Thermal rates in a bosonic environment
19. Open quantum systems
20. Open Many-Fermion systems
Index.

Subject Areas: Electrical engineering [THR], Materials science [TGM], Nanotechnology [TBN], Quantum physics [quantum mechanics & quantum field theory PHQ]