Atomic and Electronic Structure of Solids , Efthimios Kaxiras Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2003. $110.00, $65.00 paper (676 pp.). ISBN 0-521-81010-8, ISBN 0-521-52339-7 paper
Writing a textbook on modern solid-state physics is akin to writing a travel guide for a vast country with a rich landscape, diverse peoples, and long history. Although it is impossible to be comprehensive, much less definitive, a good book can introduce the subject, give a sound grounding in fundamentals, open a window to current research and, most important, stimulate the interest of the reader toward further study. Quantum Theory of Solids by Eoin O’Reilly and Atomic and Electronic Structure of Solids by Efthimios Kaxiras achieve these goals in two very different ways.
O’Reilly’s book purposefully guides the reader along a carefully chosen itinerary based on the physics of a quantum mechanical “particle-in-a-box.” The author cleverly casts progressively complex topics in this form, starting with bonding in simple molecules and semiconductors, going on to band structure of solids via the one-dimensional Kronig—Penney model, and ending in quantum wells, wires, and dots. This organizing principle makes the book easy to use for a course or for self-study. The problems that O’Reilly provides are sound pedagogical exercises directly tied to the text. The review and reinforcement of basic quantum mechanical results and their relation to the properties of real systems are undoubtedly valuable for advanced undergraduate students and beginning graduate students.
Kaxiras chooses a quite different approach in Atomic and Electronic Structure of Solids . The book begins with an overview of crystal structures of the elements, which introduces many physical concepts that are explained and more fully discussed later. Succeeding chapters systematically develop the single-particle approximation in periodic potentials, the band structure of representative solids and related topics, and lattice dynamics.
The emphasis of Kaxiras’s book is more on concepts and their mathematical expression than on the application to individual materials. With a few exceptions, the figures are based on data from three elements (aluminum, silver, and silicon) or show general behavior rather than data for a particular system. The measured, elegant prose is reminiscent of classic texts such as John M. Ziman’s Principles of the Theory of Solids (Cambridge U. Press, 1964) and Joseph Callaway’s Quantum Theory of the Solid State (Academic Press, 1974).
In Kaxiras’s book, exercises, some quite nontrivial, are included at the end of each chapter. Extensive appendixes review the prerequisite quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and electromagnetic and elasticity theory and make the book relatively self-contained. However, this book demands a much higher-level sophistication and attention on the part of the reader. While it is thus suitable as a text for a graduate-level lecture course, it is also valuable as a reference book.
O’Reilly’s presentation in Quantum Theory of Solids is more elementary, which is appropriate for an intended audience that includes advanced undergraduates. The book greatly relies on one-dimensional and classical analogs. In a few cases, the author oversimplifies. This makes, for example, the discussion of the effective mass approximation and envelope function rather confusing. The simple pictures, however, generally work well. O’Reilly includes information only as necessary to the subject under discussion. For example, the only Bravais lattices he describes are face-centered cubic and body-centered cubic, he states Bloch’s theorem without proof, and he does not cover lattice dynamics.
In Kaxiras’s book, however, one can find at least some information on nearly any topic, sometimes in a refreshingly unusual place. For instance, most of semiconductor physics is presented in the chapter on point defects, whereas cohesion of solids and optical and transport properties are combined in a chapter on applications of band theory.
Both books have rather standard sections on magnetism and superconductivity, apparently included for completeness rather than for their pertinence to the individual vision of each book. Each book also offers direct access to selected topics of current research interest. O’Reilly includes, as the natural culmination of the development of the particle-in-a-box principle, an interesting and informative chapter on selected topics in low-dimensional semiconductor structures. Kaxiras devotes the entire second half of his book to the physics of defects. Building on the foundation laid in part 1, it is an elementary, systematic presentation of the physics of point defects, dislocations and other line defects, and surfaces and heterostructures. Essentially a “book within a book,” part 2 also includes an introduction to non-periodic solids, quasicrystals, clusters, and macromolecules. It is an invaluable background resource for students and researchers who want to study the recent literature.
Atomic and Electronic Structure of Solids and Quantum Theory of Solids each have a unique vision and voice; the two books highlight the diversity of possible approaches to presenting the subject and further broaden the options available in solid-state physics textbooks. One can hope that, with the appropriate book, the experiences of each new visitor to the land of solid-state physics will be such as to encourage a deep and lasting interest in this subject.