Transition Metal Compounds

Describing all aspects of the physics of transition metal compounds, this book provides a comprehensive overview of this unique and diverse class of solids. Beginning with the basic concepts of the physics of strongly correlated electron systems, the structure of transition metal ions, and the behaviours of transition metal ions in crystals, it goes on to cover more advanced topics such as metal-insulator transitions, orbital ordering, and novel phenomena such as multiferroics, systems with oxygen holes, and high-Tc superconductivity. Each chapter concludes with a summary of key facts and concepts, presenting all the most important information in a consistent and concise manner. Set within a modern conceptual framework, and providing a complete treatment of the fundamental factors and mechanisms that determine the properties of transition metal compounds, this is an invaluable resource for graduate students, researchers and industrial practitioners in solid state physics and chemistry, materials science, and inorganic chemistry.

1. Localised and itinerant electrons in solids; 2. Isolated transition metal ions; 3. Transition metal ions in crystals; 4. Mott–Hubbard vc charge-transfer insulators; 5. Exchange interaction and magnetic structures; 6. Cooperative Jahn–Teller effect and orbital ordering; 7. Charge ordering in transition metal compounds; 8. Ferroelectrics, magnetoelectrics and multiferroics; 9. Doping of correlated systems and correlated metals; 10. Metal-insulator transitions; 11. Kondoeffect, mixed valence and heavy fermions; Appendix A. Some historical notes; Appendix B. A layman's guide to second quantization; Appendix C. Phase transitions and free energy expansion: Landau theory in a nutshell.

Daniel I. Khomskii is a professor at the University of Köln, Germany, where his research interests focus on metal-insulator transitions, magnetism, orbital ordering and superconductivity. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.