This textbook provides an up-to-date account of modern thinking about the electronic structure and properties of crystalline and non-crystalline materials in a form that is readily accessible to undergraduates in materials science, physics, and chemistry. In recent years the dominant role of the local atomic environment in controlling electronic structure and properties of materials has been recognized. The 'real-space' approach to electronic
structure that this recognition has spawned runs through this book, and provides a coherent framework in which to study perfect and defective crystals and non-crystalline materials. This is the
approach that those who have been worried by the conventional preoccupation with perfect crystals and band theory have been waiting for. The reciprocal space approach, exemplified in band theory, is also developed and powerful links between the two approaches are shown. Modern, first principles calculations, based on density functional theory, are now predictive tools in materials science and they are introduced and illustrated with relevant examples. Throughout this book the mathematical
complexity is kept to a minimum. This therefore, is a textbook which provides a unique introduction to current understanding and predictive modelling of electronic structure and properties in today's
materials.
Industry Reviews
'the presentation is succinct ... and immensely enjoyable'
Gyaneshwar Srivastava, University of Exeter, Physics World, April 1994
'Adrian Sutton has achieved a fresh insight into an old subject. Sutton certainly has managed to produce a useful slant to the study of solid materials, principally by concentrating on one aspect, namely electronic structure. I found the treatment novel and refrshing, especially because of the mix of simple and complex formalisms. The book is well written and interesting, and materials scientists and solid-state phsycists will find it most useful.'
Times Higher Education Supplement
'This book is a giant step forward for teaching the electronic structure of solids in a way that is better related to the facts about materials that one wants to understand.'
V. Heine, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, Contemporary Physics 35
'The book will be of value to undergraduates in physics, chemistry and materials science.'
Aslib Book Guide, vol. 59, no. 4, April 1994
'Adrian Sutton has achieved a fresh insight into an old subject. Sutton ... has managed to produce a useful slant to the study of solid materials, principally by concentrating on one aspect, namely electronic structure. I found the treatment novel and refreshing, especially because of the mix of simple and complex formalism. The book is well written and interesting, and materials scientists and solid-state physicists will find it most useful.'
Times Higher Education Supplement
`Le livre est une tres bonne synthese des deux approches, et il en degage bien la complementarite. Les methodes de calcul modernes, a partir des premiers principes, sont introduites simplement, sans aucun developpement lourd, et illustrees par quelques exemples. Ce livre est a conseiller aux etudiants de maitrise et de DEA dans la specialite.'
La Recherche, No. 271, Decembre 1994
