Department of Electrical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

EE 311 Home Assignment #2 Assigned: 16.1.23 Due: 23.1.23

1. Prove that in a cubic crystal, the [hkl] direction is orthogonal to the (hkl) plane.

2. Find the potential energy of binding between a chlorine atom and its nearest neighbor
sodium atoms in the sodium chloride crystal. Express your answer in the unit of eV/atom.
Note how strong the bonding is.

3. Compare the electrostatic and Newtonian gravitational forces between: (a) two electrons, (b)
an electron and a proton, and (c) an electron and a singly positively charged U238 ion.
Hence, show that in bonding atoms to form a crystal, the gravitational forces play negligible
role as compared to the electrostatic forces.

4. Express the frequency of a quantum of radiant energy in terms of Hz/eV. What quantum
energy corresponds to a frequency of 1 GHz? Get a feel of these numbers.

5. The frequency of oscillation of an atom in a one-dimensional monatomic lattice is given by

 = m[sin(ka/2)], where k is the wave number, a is the interatomic spacing, and m is the
maximum oscillator frequency, given by m = 2v0/a, with v0 being known as the long
wavelength sound velocity, which is actually the group as well as the phase velocity of the
o
waves as   , or, in other words, as k  0. If v0 = 3 km/sec, and a = 2.6 A , find the
maximum spacing in terms of energy of the quantized oscillator levels.