L2 Free Electron Gas Model

A) Drude Theory of Metals;

B) Sommerfeld Theory of Metals.

Paul Karl Ludwig Drude Arnold Johannes Wilhelm

(July 12, 1863 July 5, 1906) Sommerfeld (5 December
was a German physicist 1868 26 April 1951) was
a German theoretical physicist
 Free Electron Gas Model
J.J.Thomson discovered the electron in 1897.
In 1900 P. Drude constructed his theory of electrical and
thermal conduction of metal considered as a gas of electrons .

A. The Dude Theory of a Metal:

Gas of electrons = negative charge

Compensating positive charge = ion cores

Density of electron gas:

Z m
n 0.6022 10 24

A
Avogadros number

m - Mass density (gram/cm3)

A - Atomic mass of the element

- Number of valence elecrons

Z
Model of an electron gas in a metal.
a0 = - Bohr radius
In spite of high density (n > 1000 ngas) of electron gas

in metals and in spite of the strong electron electron

Interaction (and electron-ion interaction) the Drude model

treats the dens electron gas by the methods of kinetic

theory of a neutral dilute gas!

Why this model works?

 relaxation time

- mean free time

between collisions
collision time

mean free time

Between collisions:

- No interaction with other electrons = independent electron

approximation

- No interaction with ions = free electron approximation.

Probability of an electron undergoing a collision

in any time interval dt is:

dt

Electrons are assumed to achieve thermal equilibrium

with their surrounding only through collisions.

Drude used Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics (that is wrong!!)

Nevertheless..

Model works in many cases!

Why?

Let us consider few applications

of the Drude theory.
 DC Electrical conductivity of a Metal.

Ohms Law: (Georg Ohm, 1827, Germany)

V I R
V - the potential drop
I - current

R - resistance

To eliminate the dependence of R on the shape of the wire

the Ohms Law is written in the form:

E j
E - electric field

j - current density

- resistivity (tensor in general).

 Current density:
I
j , where E=j
A
I - Uniform current

A - cross-section area of the wire.

Potential drop along the wire:

V EL
E - Electric field

L - Wire length

I L L
V R
A A
If n number of electrons per unit volume,
Vav average electron velocity

Then: vdt
dQ = - envavAdt
I = - envavA A

j = - envav
 In the presence of electric field vav 0

Let us calculate vav..

At time t0 velocity = v0.

At time t:
eE
Velocity = v 0 v v 0 t
m

Now average the velocity:

0
eE
v 0 v v 0 t
m

eE
v av
m
e 2 n
j -env av E
m
 - relaxation time

j E

ne 2
- conductivity
m

m
ne2
- resistivity
1

One can use to estimate the value of relaxation time:

m
- from measurements
ne 2

Table 1.3 shows for various metals at different temperatures

0.22 rs 14
3

10 s is used to calculate .
a
0
We can estimate the mean free path of electrons,
if we know and velocity.
 Remark:

At the low temperature is an order of magnitude larger than

at room temperature, while v0 the average velocity is
actually temperature independent (as well see later). This can
raise the low-temperature mean free path to 103 or more!!!
(At very low temperature l can be on the order of centimetres,
i.e. 108 times interatomic spacing).

This is strong evidence that the electrons do not simply bump

off the ions, as Drude supposed!!!
Let us consider few problems that can be treated
within Drude model and that are independent
of the value of the relaxation time:

AC electrical conductivity, when the electric field is

spatially uniform, but time-dependent

DC electrical conductivity, when a spatially uniform

static magnetic field is present Hall Effect.
First, let us construct an equation of the average electron
momentum p(t) evolution under the influence of the external
force f(t).

Within the relaxation time approximation equation of motion:

dp(t ) p(t )
f (t )
dt

Frictional damping term

in the equation of motion
for the momentum per
electron.
AC Electrical Conductivity of a Metal

s
 ns?

Possible complications:

smaller than the term in E

2
n
Dielectric function and plasmon oscillations

2
( ) 1 p Drude dielectric

2 function

It was derived for Free Electron Gas Model

For real metals (solids) it is far more complicated than

An important consequence of is that the electron gas

can sustain charge density oscillations. By this we mean
a disturbance in which the electric charge density has an
oscillatory time dependence:

( ) 0e -ii
- Charge density
Let us consider system of equations:

j Equation of continuity
t
E( ) 4 ( ) Gausss law

j(r, ) E Ohms law

() - is charge density

i ( ) 4 ( ) ( )
i 4 ( ) ( ) 0
It has a non-zero solution for the charge density provided that:

i 4 ( ) 0
4i 4i
1 0 ( ) 1

 So,

( ) 0 - Is the condition the frequency

must meet if a charge density wave is to propagate.

The nature of this charge density wave, known as a plasma

oscillations (or plasmons) can be understood in terms of a
simple model.
Let us consider this model: