Electrical, Optical & Magnetic Materials and Devices
In 3.15x we will explore the electrical, optical, and magnetic properties of materials and learn how electronic devices are designed to exploit these properties.
Electrical, Optical & Magnetic Materials and Devices
In 3.15x we will explore the electrical, optical, and magnetic properties of materials and learn how electronic devices are designed to exploit these properties.
This course will explain the basis of the electrical, optical, and magnetic properties of materials including semiconductors, metals, organics and insulators, and will show how devices are built to take advantage of those properties. It is illustrated with a wide range of devices, placing a strong emphasis on new and emerging technologies. Applications presented include diodes, transistors, photodetectors, solar cells (photovoltaics), displays, light emitting diodes, lasers, optical fibers and optical communications, photonic devices, magnetic data storage, motors, transformers and spintronics.
What you'll learn
Part 1:
- The origins of semiconductor properties
- Carrier action in semiconductors: drift, diffusion, recombination and generation
- The behavior of p-n junctions at equilibrium and under bias
- The derivation and application of the ideal diode equation, and how real diodes differ from ideal diodes
- Operating principles of bipolar junction transistors and MOSFETs
Part 2:
- The fundamental operating principles of photodevices
- LED and heterojunction laser materials selection and design
- Fundamentals of organic electronics and liquid crystal displays
- An overview of photonic systems
- Optical fibers: dispersion, losses, and design choices
Part 3:
- Fundamentals of magnetism
- The role anisotropy plays in the magnetic behavior of materials
- The operating principles of transformers and DC motors
- How data is stored on hard disks
- Principles of optical and magnetooptical storage
Prerequisites
- Physics, calculus, and chemistry at the first year university level
- Familiarity with materials structure and bonding
- A background in solid state physics is helpful, but is not absolutely essential
Meet your instructors
-
Toyota Professor of Materials Science and Engineering -
Principal Lecturer and Digital Learning Scientist
Caroline Ross
Caroline Ross
Toyota Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Caroline Ross is Toyota Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She received her undergraduate and PhD degrees from Cambridge University, UK, was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, and worked at Komag, a hard disk company, before joining MIT.
Prof. Ross studies the magnetic properties of thin films and nanostructures for data storage and logic applications, and methods for creating nanoscale structures based on directed self-assembly and lithography.
Jessica Sandland
Jessica Sandland
Principal Lecturer and Digital Learning Scientist
Jessica Sandland is a principal lecturer in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), where she leads online learning initiatives-- developing massive open online courses (MOOCs), collaborating with faculty, researching best practices in online learning, and designing blended learning experiences for the MIT community. She has overseen the development of a wide variety of DMSE’s online courses, including 3.086x (Innovation and Commercialization), 3.032x (Mechanical Behavior of Materials), 3.024x (Electronic, Optical, and Magnetic Properties of Materials), 3.15x (Electrical, Optical and Magnetic Materials and Devices), and 3.054x (Cellular Solids).
Jessica is one of the co-founders and leads of the MICRO program, whose mission is to provide a remote research and education experience for engineering undergraduates from disadvantaged backgrounds. She also serves as a senior member of Open Learning’s Digital Learning Laboratory. Her current research interests include the utility of peer review in open online courses and the use of humor in MOOCs, and she’s received awards for Best Paper in ‘20 and ‘22 for her contributions to the IEEE LWMOOCs Conference. Jessica also received the 2019 MITx Prize for Teaching and Learning in MOOCs and was a finalist for the 2019 edX prize. Jessica holds a Ph.D. in electronic materials from MIT.