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Bloch wave(Redirected from Bloch waves) A Bloch wave or Bloch state is the wavefunction of a particle (usually, an electron) placed in a periodic potential. It consists of the product of a plane wave and a periodic function, which has the same periodicity as the potential. The plane wave wavevector is unique only up to a reciprocal lattice vector, which gives rise to the concept of the Brillouin zone. For a given wavevector, there are a number of solutions to Schrodinger's equation for a Bloch electron. These solutions, called bands, have a finite energy spacing. The band structure is the collection of energy eigenstates within the first Brillouin zone. All the properties of electrons in a periodic potential can be calculated from this band structure, at least within the independent electron approximation. It can be shown that a particle in a periodic potential must have this form by proving that translation operators commute with the Hamiltonian. This result is called Bloch's Theorem. The concept of the Bloch state was developed by Felix Bloch in 1928.This article is adapted from from Wikipedia All Wikipedia article text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License The Physics of Oscillations and Waves: With Applications in Electricity and Mechanics by Ingram Bloch The Physics of Oscillations and Waves: With Applications in Mechanics and Electricity by Ingram Bloch Recent Bloch_waves related patents From USPTO: 5646418: Quantum effect switching device 5130843: Acousto-optical device using a superlattice as the interaction meduim 4801993: Monolithic semiconductor structure of a heterojunction bipolar transistor and a laser 4666235: Stable fiber optic polarizer 4401694: Method and apparatus for an optical sensor utilizing semiconductor filters 4355910: Method and apparatus for an optical sensor utilizing semiconductor filters |