TIGHT BINDING

APPROXIMATION
ASSIGNMENT – 3

PHY 407 : CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS

PRESENTED BY : MANJUBALA Submitted to :
2021IMSBPH009 Dr. Neeraj Panwar
INTEGRATED MSC BED PHYSICS/ SEM-2

CENTRAL UNIVERSITY OF
Introduction :

 For materials which are formed from closed-shell atoms or ions, or even covalent
solids, the free electron model seems inappropriate. In the tight-binding model, we
imagine how the wavefunctions of atoms or ions will interact as we bring them
together.

 As the name suggests, “Tight Binding” electronic band model assumes that the
electrons are tightly bound to their parent nuclei in the crystal.

 This model suggest that the overlapping of wavefunctions of the orbitals for the
neighboring and far away atoms are negligible.
For example, take two hydrogen atoms, A and B, and consider the states
When more atoms are brought together, the degeneracies are further split – to form bands
ranging from fully bonding to fully antibonding. Different orbitals can lead to band overlap.
3-D cubic lattice

The weaker the overlap (Y) the narrower is the band gap
Thank You