This course covers the thermal properties of solids. Starting from a thermodynamic foundation, the course will consider a wide range of functional properties that arise in materials where the thermal properties are strongly coupled to the structural, electrical, magnetic and optical properties.

The wide range of experimental techniques that are employed to characterise and understand the materials above will be also considered. These will include neutron scattering, synchrotron-based techniques, calorimetry in external fields, scanning thermal microscopy and infra-red imaging.

This lecture course will cover:

• magnetic shape memory and magnetic superelastic materials
• invar materials
• phononic materials
• thermoelectric materials
• spin-caloritronic materials
• magnetocaloric, electrocaloric and mechanocaloric materials
• phase change materials
• self-healing materials
• chromogenic materials