Chapter 15 Matter at Low Temperatures

Much of the experimental physics research done at Case during the 1950’s and 1960’s was concerned with the properties of solids. The work on crystals done by Chuck Smith and that done by Eugene Crittenden on thin metallic films (described in Chapter 7) led to the later research of Schuele, Hoffman, Gordon and Eck (Chapter 12). Many of these studies were done on materials held at a few degrees above absolute zero. The subtle interactions between the electrons and the atoms of the crystal become more transparent as the temperature is lowered and the thermal motions of the players become less important. In the middle 1960’s, a new line of work was begun at the new “Center for the Condensed State” on the Western Reserve side: the physics of superconductors and superfluidity. These studies, also done at very low temperatures, generally went by the name “low temperature physics”. They concern materials which exhibit extraordinary electrical or mechanical properties below well-defined temperatures, and whose study has lead to significant advances in the applications of quantum mechanics. Nowadays, the more inclusive term “condensed matter physics” embraces "low temperature physics" as well as what was once called “solid state physics”.