Some Educational Websites of Interest

• Semiconductors
• Superconductors
• Books

Semiconductors

• http://www.nobel.se/announcement/2000  Nobel Prize 2000: provides an excellent ‘potted history’ of transistors through to modern ULSI and high frequency devices.  Excellent resource

• http://physicstoday.org/vol-53/iss-1/p38.html  US journal Physics Today, article "Physics and the Information Revolution" Jan 2000, explains how vacuum tubes were superseded by transistors, limits to computation and the future. 

• http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html  Georgia State University, interactive physics course. Covers all syllabus topics to a level beyond HSC requirement ? useful resource for teachers: diagrams (which can be simplified where necessary), ‘logical flow’ of topics and data.  Excellent resource

• http://www.pbs.org/transistor/  very nice website from American Physical Society covering the physics and history of the transistor. This also contains a teacher’s guide, and 4 lessons on teaching aspects of the topic, aimed at middle/high school.

• http://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm  Britney Spears’ Semiconductor Physics web pages!  Introductory pages on basic semiconductor properties (crystal structure, doping etc) is quite good and may get students interested; much of the content is too advanced though.

• http://webphysics.iupui.edu/251/251Sp97GFJan20.html What is Physics Good For - Photocopiers.

• http://www.physics.uoguelph.ca/summer/scor/articles/scor54.htm How the hotocopier works.

• http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/xerox/xerox.html  sites giving qualitative information on how photocopiers work. The last of these (Useless Information site) is entertaining and gives information about other scientific and technological matters. 

Superconductors

• http://www.eren.doe.gov/superconductivity/whatis.html  US Dept of Energy Superconductivity for Electric Systems: superconductivity history, science and applications.

• http://www.eren.doe.gov/superconductivity/toms.html  Teachers curriculum guide and links on teaching superconductivity (US DOE).

• http://www.ornl.gov/reports/m/ornlm3063r1/contents.html  A Teacher’s Guide to Superconductivity for High School Students - excellent site with history, physics basics, demonstrations and experiments.  Excellent resource

 

Books

1. Semiconductors - few monographs on semiconductors at HSC level. The most useful source books are aimed at first year undergraduate courses of broader scope that include topics on semiconductors. 

• Physics for Computer Science Students With Emphasis on Atomic and Semiconductor Physics, Narciso Garcia and Arthur Damask, Springer-Verlag, ISBN 0-387-97656-6. This is a 1st/2nd Year undergraduate text but has information on semiconductors at a level useful to teachers on the HSC Stage 6.
• Semiconductor Devices, Physics and Technology, S.M. Sze, Wiley, ISBN 0-471-87424-8. This is a more advanced text (actually a ‘classic’ book in the field), technical, but a useful resource for teachers needing more advanced information on transistors, ICs, microfabrication. 
• The Physics of Semiconductor Devices, D.A. Fraser, Oxford Physics Series, ISBN 0-19-851860-1. Relatively inexpensive paperback, directed at engineering students but some useful physics of semiconductors presented non-technically.

2. Solid State Physics - usually covering both semiconductors and superconductivity

• Introduction to Solid State Physics, C. Kittel, pub. Wiley, ISBN 0-471-874-4. This is a 3rd/4th Year u/g text but is a classic book and contains much useful data/graphical information.
• Waves, Atoms and Solid, D.A. Davies, Pub. Longman Scientific and Technical, ISBN 0-582-44174-9. Excellent book aimed at 1st/2nd Yr u/g. May now be out of print but libraries should have it. Good on solids/semiconductors but no superconductivity.

3. Other Books relevant to this syllabus section

• How Things Work, The Physics of Everyday Life, Louis A. Bloomfield, Pub. Wiley, ISBN 0-471-59473-3. This book has better (than web) account of how photocopiers work, also several other applications of physics including good section on magnetically levitated trains.

Undergraduate Stage 1 texts, good reference sources for the HSC:

• University Physics, Ronald L. Reese, Pub. Brooks/Cole, ISBN 0-534-36961-8,
• Physics, Eugene Hecht, Pub. Brooks/Cole, ISBN 0-534-36270-2. 
• Physics for Engineers and Scientists, Paul A. Tipler, Pub. Freeman-Worth (Macmillan),  ISBN 1-57259-673-2

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Further Information

Contact

• Richard Newbury