Condensed matter physics

Supercooling, also known as undercooling, is the process of lowering the temperature of a liquid or a gas below its freezing point without it becoming a solid.

("Super atom" redirects here. For clusters of atoms that seem to exhibit some of the properties of elemental atoms, see Superatom.) A Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter of a dilute gas of bosons cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero (that is, very near 0 K or −273.15 °C).

In quantum mechanics, a boson (/ˈboʊsɒn/, /ˈboʊzɒn/) is a particle that follows Bose–Einstein statistics.

In crystallography, crystal structure is a description of the ordered arrangement of atoms, ions or molecules in a crystalline material.

Crystallography is the experimental science of determining the arrangement of atoms in the crystalline solids (see crystal structure).

Electroluminescence (EL) is an optical phenomenon and electrical phenomenon in which a material emits light in response to the passage of an electric current or to a strong electric field.

An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible (unmixable or unblendable).

Hardness is a measure of how resistant solid matter is to various kinds of permanent shape change when a compressive force is applied.

In the physical sciences, a phase is a region of space (a thermodynamic system), throughout which all physical properties of a material are essentially uniform.

A quasiperiodic crystal, or quasicrystal, is a structure that is ordered but not periodic.

In physics, a state of matter is one of the distinct forms that matter takes on.

Strength of materials, also called mechanics of materials, is a subject which deals with the behavior of solid objects subject to stresses and strains.

Crystal Field Theory (CFT) is a model that describes the breaking of degeneracies of electron orbital states, usually d or f orbitals, due to a static electric field produced by a surrounding charge distribution (anion neighbors).

Electret (formed of elektr- from "electricity" and -et from "magnet") is a dielectric material that has a quasi-permanent electric charge or dipole polarisation.

In condensed matter physics, the Fermi surface is an abstract boundary in reciprocal space useful for predicting the thermal, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties of metals, semimetals, and doped semiconductors.

The Josephson effect is the phenomenon of supercurrent—i.

Cryochemistry is the study of chemical interactions at temperatures below −150 °C (−238 °F; 123 K).

In thermodynamics, a critical point (or critical state) is the end point of a phase equilibrium curve.

The Fermi energy is a concept in quantum mechanics usually referring to the energy difference between the highest and lowest occupied single-particle states in a quantum system of non-interacting fermions at absolute zero temperature.

Ferromagnetism is the basic mechanism by which certain materials (such as iron) form permanent magnets, or are attracted to magnets.

Paramagnetism is a form of magnetism whereby certain materials are attracted by an externally applied magnetic field, and form internal, induced magnetic fields in the direction of the applied magnetic field.

A supercritical fluid (SCF) is any substance at a temperature and pressure above its critical point, where distinct liquid and gas phases do not exist.

In solid-state physics, the work function (sometimes spelled workfunction) is the minimum thermodynamic work (i.e. energy) needed to remove an electron from a solid to a point in the vacuum immediately outside the solid surface.

In solid-state physics, the electron mobility characterizes how quickly an electron can move through a metal or semiconductor, when pulled by an electric field.

A spin glass is a disordered magnet, where the magnetic spin of the component atoms (the orientation of the north and south magnetic poles in three-dimensional space) are not aligned in a regular pattern.

A superlattice is a periodic structure of layers of two (or more) materials.

Interface and colloid science is an interdisciplinary intersection of branches of chemistry, physics, nanoscience and other fields dealing with colloids, heterogeneous systems consisting of a mechanical mixture of particles between 1 nm and 1000 nm dispersed in a continuous medium.

Magnetic refrigeration is a cooling technology based on the magnetocaloric effect.

Heat transfer physics describes the kinetics of energy storage, transport, and transformation by principal energy carriers: phonons (lattice vibration waves), electrons, fluid particles, and photons.

In physics, screening is the damping of electric fields caused by the presence of mobile charge carriers.

In pure and applied mathematics, particularly quantum mechanics and computer graphics and their applications, a spherical basis is the basis used to express spherical tensors.

Liquefaction is a term used in materials sciences to refer to any process which either generates a liquid from a solid or a gas, or generates a non-liquid phase which behaves in accordance with fluid dynamics.

A semimetal is a material with a very small overlap between the bottom of the conduction band and the top of the valence band.

The Fermi level is the total chemical potential for electrons (or electrochemical potential for electrons) and is usually denoted by µ or EF.

Quasi-crystals are supramolecular aggregates exhibiting both crystalline (solid) properties as well as amorphous, liquid-like properties.

A crystal is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions.

In solid-state physics of semiconductors, a band diagram is a diagram plotting various key electron energy levels (Fermi level and nearby energy band edges) as a function of some spatial dimension, which is often denoted x.

In pure and applied mathematics, quantum mechanics and computer graphics, a tensor operator generalizes the notion of operators which are scalars and vectors.

Thomas–Fermi screening is a theoretical approach to calculating the effects of electric field screening by electrons in a solid.