ESP Biography

Metal conducts electricity. Plastic does not. What if there were a material that was somewhere in between? You might have heard of semiconductors—the type of material that has taken over the modern world in the past 40 years, enabling revolutions in computation, lighting, and energy production. But what does it even mean for a material to be "semi-conducting"? And why would this even be useful? By the end of the class, we will have built up a theoretical framework to understand the behavior of semiconductors, and have walked through the principles behind their application in our daily lives. The class will include hands-on demos so we can actually see the physics in action!

Semiconductors have taken over the modern world in the past 30 years - in everything from your computers, lights, solar cells, and more. That being said, you often don't get a chance to think about how these materials actually have the properties they do. We will walk through basic concepts in solid materials to understand this, with hands-on demos to illustrate them.