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Recommended previous courses: PHY102, PHY107, PHY201, PHY204, PHY205, PHY206

 

Condensed matter physics deals with the description of the physical properties of matter when the interaction between its constituents are very strong. This is typically the case for materials and devices. It covers a very large field of knowledge that encompasses electric, thermal, chemical, magnetic, and mechanical properties, and all the combinations of these properties, in solids.

From the technological point of view, condensed matter physics have brought some major discoveries and new developments: electronic devices, sensors, actuators, transductors, power generation devices, energy storage, to name but a few.

This domain of physics is based on two different and complementary approaches. A first approach starts from the quantum microscopic constituents and describes statistically the macroscopic consequences. The second is a phenomenological macroscopic description based on general principles of thermodynamics and symmetries.

 

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