Tuesday, March 6, 2018

HW 8. Lattice vibrations

1. For a linear chain of atoms and gamma = 2 meV/nm^2, 
oops, let's change that to: (see comments)
 \(\gamma = 40 \: eV/nm^2\),

Also, let's use the mass of a proton, (the mc^2 for that) and a =0.2 nm.  How does that sound?
a) Plot the lattice vibration frequency as a function of k.
b) what is the frequency of the zone boundary, (\(k = \pi/a\)), lattice vibration mode?
c) what is the characteristic velocity associated with sound propagation in this crystal*?
d) do you need another parameter to answer some of these? what is a reasonable value for it?
e) extra credit. what is the energy, in meV, of a zone boundary acoustic phonon in this crystal?

* extra credit. How does this speed compare with the speed associated with electron dispersion near the K point in graphene?

5 comments:

  1. do we need a reduced mass m to solve this? or maybe a value of mc^2?

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  2. Don't we need a value for a to find the velocity?

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  3. good points. I am realizing reading this that I made the value of gamma too small by a lot. I think we should change gamma to about 40 eV/nm^2.

    That seems awfully large, but it is the same as 0.4 eV/angstrom^2, which maybe looks more reasonable. The distances associated with nuclei movement in lattice vibrations are typically pretty small, like about 1/10 or 1/100 angstrom I think.

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