Book Review (3) Structure and Dynamics: An atomic View of Materials
Title 'Structure and Dynamics: An atomic View of Materials'
Author Martin Dove, University of Cambridge
Publisher Oxford University Press, 2003
£47.95 hardback £ 24.95 paperback
ISBN 0198506783 (PB); 0198506775(HB) 352 pages
This book in the Oxford Master Series in Condensed Matter Physics is a very welcome addition to the armoury of textbooks in this area. It is particularly refreshing to see in the title the words "an atomic view" since so much of the emphasis in physics teaching is on the electronic view with the atoms simply providing a periodic (in the case of crystals) backdrop.
In this book, the author provides a clear, cogent and relatively self-contained late undergraduate (I would say third or fourth year)/first-year postgraduate grounding in the essentials of crystallography, crystal physics, lattice dynamics and phase transitions. Discussion of structure and bonding takes the first five chapters of the book, progressing from packing arguments to formal crystallography, including a nice summary of point group and space group symmetry. It is a pleasure to see structures such as TiO2, ZrP2O7 and perovskites under discussion in a physics text-book - progression beyond the crystal structures of NaCl and diamond is a welcome advance! Furthermore, sections are included on disordered and amorphous materials too, and one of the examples of from the Diffraction chapter (Ch 6) is the structure of glasses from neutron scattering, an example that will disabuse physics students of the myth that diffraction techniques are only applicable to crystals.From Chapter 7 onwards, the emphasis of the book changes to Physical Properties (Ch 7), Lattice Dynamics, their thermodynamic consequences and their Experimental investigation (Ch 8-10), Anharmonic interactions (Ch 11) and Displacive Phase Transitions (Ch 12). This necessarily covers a treatment of tensor properties, which runs the gauntlet of first-rank to fourth-rank properties in only 13 pages. Although this may be rather swift for the average student, it does accurately reflect the sort of period one has to try and teach this subject in a typical physics module, and there are sensible suggestions for additional reading.
The treatment of lattice dynamics is very clear with excellent diagrams for example, showing the atomic displacements in whole planes associated with longitudinal and transverse acoustic modes. After giving the monatomic and diatomic chains, which are standard undergraduate fodder, the author gives the generalisation for more complex cases, e.g. for a 2-D crystal of symmetry as low as mm2. These more difficult examples are most useful - whilst they can be omitted for the standard undergraduate teaching, they provide a useful primer for specialist final-year project teaching or even elementary post-graduate study. In this sense, the book can generally be used at more than one level. The final chapter on Displacive Phase Transitions is an excellent summary of what you need to know i.e., the knowledge you should not be without. It covers Landau and soft-mode theories and includes discussion of ferroelectric, ferroelastic and incommensurate phase transitions.
The numerous appendices A to N are a useful resource: A throws the spanner of reality into the works of the ideal crystal by admitting that not all crystals are perfect, introducing domains and domain walls amongst other defects. My own preference would have been to see this subject covered in the main text - however, it is present and clearly explained in the appendix. Most of the other appendices take the opportunity to explain theory, including theory of crystallography such as the Ewald sphere construction and the Wilson plot, in greater depth, which is entirely appropriate. The closing pages of the book are devoted to the answers to the well-posed problems found at the end of each Chapter. These constitute an additional resource for the busy lecturer and will certainly be widely used and adapted.
In summary, I found this to be a well thought-out, clear and modern book on the structural side of condensed matter physics. Whilst ideally suited to undergraduate physics students, I think much of the book could sensibly used to teach equivalent modules in chemistry and, given the author's background, I expect it to be useful for mineralogy/earth sciences also. On a personal note, I shall be recommending the book for my third and fourth year students in Ferroics next term.
Pam Thomas