WHEN YOU'RE IN k-SPACE

words by Dr. James D. Livingston

tune: Makin' Whoopee, by Walter Donaldson

Click here to play tune

The bound'ries of - the Brillouin zone
Just represent - a law you've known
The satisfaction - of Bragg diffraction
When you're in k-space

Those bound'ries on - the k-space maps
Are where you'll find - energy gaps
That's one attraction - of the abstraction
When you're in k-space

And there's the Fermi surface
Contour of energy
Things happen when that surface
Reaches the boundary

Dimensions in - momentum space
Are inverse of - the normal place
Just keepin' busy - can make you dizzy
When you're in k-space


 



3d view of the Fermi surfaces of Chromium.
Band 3 : yellow (small lenses inside violet surface)
Band 4 : violet
Band 5 : bluish green

To see the stereo effect, move your eye closer to the monitor until the left image of your left eye overlaps with the right image of your right eye (the images are out of focus; you should see 3 images, the center one is overlapped). Then try to focus on the overlapped image, and slowly move away from the screen until the overlapped image is clear, you should see a 3D image that "pops out" of the screen.

Image courtesy of the Fermi Surface Database

Learn more about some of the topics mentioned:
Diffraction in k-space, Motion of electrons in a periodic lattice (lecture notes by Prof. Chris Wiebe, Brock University), Brillouin zones

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