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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good companion for first solid state course, December 22, 2006
This review is from: Solid State Physics, 2nd Edition (Paperback)
I used this book as a companion to the standard Ashcroft & Mermin text in a graduate physics course. As other reviewers have pointed out, the approach of Hook is quite different, which in my case was of great benefit. First, the math in this book is not as sophisticated as Ashcroft's. The author prefers 1- or 2-dimentional derivations to Ashcroft's generalized ones using vector functions and matrix equations. Second, the explanations provide a fundamental understanding to a student, while Aschroft's writing is dense and at time can sound like a theory paper about mathematics. I challenge anyone to find a mention of Heisenberg uncertainty principle - a fundamental property of waves - in Ashcroft's chapter on lattice vibrations. Hook talks about it in the introduction of his treatment. Finally, this is one of the few solid state books out there that has ANSWERS to all the problems. This is very valuable when you need examples and to test your knowledge before an exam.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
a different, but worthwhile, approach try before buying, January 4, 2002
This review is from: Solid State Physics, 2nd Edition (Paperback)
When Professor Hall lectured Solid State Physics on an undergraduate course at Manchester he deviated from the approach taken in the book, which surprised me somewhat. I'll come back to this later. The book is very sound if somewhat idiosyncratic. In particular, I found that Hook and Hall used explanatory devices quite different to those followed by my other lecturers, and by most other textbooks. This could be a good or a bad thing, depending on your mental aptitude and/or fondness for their exposition. I suspect the reason Hall used a different approach in lectures was to tie in with the way we learnt related subject material at Manchester (solid state being just one of three or four compulsory 2nd year courses dealing with atomic and sub-atomic matter). This is not to say that anything in the book is misleading. It's very well-written and comprehensive, and if this is a subject that you want to learn more about than you can in general texts, I can recommend it as it helped me on several occasions. Perhaps spend half an hour with it in the library or bookshop before buying. I could not find a better text on solid state at this level when I took my degree in 1995 (IIRC the first edition of Hook-Hall was 1970's, the second early 90's), but that situation may have changed by now.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not great, but maybe one of the better choices based on what's available, January 8, 2010
This review is from: Solid State Physics, 2nd Edition (Paperback)
First, the disclaimer: I'm writing this as an instructor of an undergraduate course in Solid State Physics. The standard text of Kittel is a fantastic reference after a course that uses it, but is so terse in descriptions that it's a tough haul for a first course. I tried using the Physics and Chemistry of Solids by Elliot, which was too verbose. On this spectrum, Hook and Hall is in the middle -- not too long to be overwhelming, but generally fairly readable text along the way. The text is not great, but not bad at all. (I would have tried a text by Chrisman if it was still in print.)
In terms of subject matter, the book largely follows the standard route (crystal structures, diffraction, phonons, electrons, semiconductors, then more specialized topics). The one big caveat is that reciprocal space is deferred until late in the book. While there were a couple times when I wanted to bring up reciprocal space earlier in the course (e.g. diffraction), it avoided the usual period early in the semester trying to figure out this abstract concept without knowing what good it is.
There is yet to be a text for an undergraduate course that matches the role Ashcroft and Mermin played for a graduate solid state course -- coherent, intuitive, and mathematically rigorous. While I can envision a better text, I have yet to find it. I would be likely to use this text again based on what I've seen that's available.
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