Advanced Solid State Physics - Student Project SS 2013

Sommerfeld expansion
Use the Sommerfeld expansion to calculate the temperature
dependence of the chemical potential/internal energy in one/two/
three dimensions at low temperature.
Evaluation of integrals of the form
_

H()f(, T)d with f(, T) =

1
e

k
B
T
+ 1
can be done approximately with the Sommerfeld expansion
_

H()
e

k
B
T
+ 1
d =
_

H()d +

2
6
(k
B
T)
2
H

() +O([k
B
T]
4
) +... (1)
Here H

() denotes the derivative of H() with respect to evaluated at = . For low

temperatures the underlying series is remarkably convergent so that terms higher then
second order can often be neglected. Furthermore it is convenient to set the lower limit
of integration to = 0 since the lowest energy state can be dened to be zero.
To calculate certain properties such as the internal energy for a free electron gas we
further need the density of states in the given dimension (see table 1).
Table 1: Density of states and Fermi energy for free electrons in one, two and three dimensions
(can be found here
1
).
1D 2D 3D
Density of states D(E) =
n
2

E
F
E
D(E) =
n
E
F
D(E) =
3n
2E
3/2
F

E
Fermi energy E
F
E
F
=

2
h
2
n
2
8m
E
F
=
h
2
n
m
E
F
=
h
2
2m
(3
2
n)
2
3
Temperature dependence of the chemical potential
The electron density is dened as
n =
_

D(E)f(E, T)dE resp. n =

_
E
F
E=0
D(E)dE. (2)
1
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1
Advanced Solid State Physics - Student Project SS 2013
Using the Sommerfeld expansion with H(E) = D(E) and omitting the terms O([k
B
T]
4
)
then gives
n =
_

0
D(E)dE +

2
6
(k
B
T)
2
_
dD(E)
dE
_
E=
(3)
At low temperatures the chemical potential approaches the Fermi energy E
F
with only
small deviation. As the chemical potential is a function of T
2
, the integral in equation
(3) can be approximated by
_

0
H(E)dE
_
E
F
0
H(E)dE + ( E
F
)H(E
F
). (4)
For the chemical potential in the last term of eq. (3) the Fermi energy E
F
can be used
in good approximation (the other terms would be already of order O([k
B
T]
4
)) which
then results in the following expression:
Sommerfeld expansion
_

0
H(E)f(E, T)dE
_
E
F
0
H(E)dE+(E
F
)H(E
F
)+

2
6
(k
B
T)
2
H

(E)

E=E
F
(5)
Now the expressions for the chemical potential in one, two and three dimensions are
derived:
1D
n =
_

0
n
2

E
F
E
f(E, T)dE
n =
_
E
F
E=0
D(E)dE
. .
=n
+
n
2

E
F
_
_
( E
F
)
1

E
F

2
12E
3/2
(k
B
T)
2

E=E
F
_
_
E
F
E
F
=

2
12E
2
F
(k
B
T)
2
= E
F
+

2
12E
F
(k
B
T)
2
(6)
2D
n =
_

0
n

E
F
f(E, T)dE
n =
_
E
F
E=0
D(E)dE
. .
=n
+( E
F
)
n

E
F
= E
F
(7)
2
Advanced Solid State Physics - Student Project SS 2013
3D
n =
_

0
3n
2E
3/2
F

Ef(E, T)dE
n =
_
E
F
E=0
D(E)dE
. .
=n
+
3n
2E
3/2
F
_
_
( E
F
)
_
E
F
+

2
12

E
(k
B
T)
2

E=E
F
_
_
E
F
E
2
F
=

2
12E
2
F
(k
B
T)
2
= E
F


2
12E
F
(k
B
T)
2
(8)
Temperature dependence of the internal energy
The internal energy is dened as
u =
_
ED(E)f(E, T)dE. (9)
Using the Sommerfeld expansion in the form eq. (5) with H(E) = ED(E) and plugging
in the density of states and the chemical potential gives:
1D
u =
_

0
E
n
2

E
F
E
f(E, T)dE =
=
n
2

E
F
_
_
_
E
F
E=0

EdE + ( E
F
)
E
F

E
F
+

2
12

E
(k
B
T)
2

E=E
F
_
_
=
=
n
2

E
F
_
E
3/2

E
F
0
+

2
12E
F
(k
B
T)
2
E
F

E
F
+

2
12

E
F
(k
B
T)
2
_
=
=
nE
F
3
+
n
2
12E
F
(k
B
T)
2
(10)
2D
u =
_

0
E
n
E
F
f(E, T)dE =
n
2E
F
E
2

E
F
0
+ ( E
F
)
. .
=0
n +

2
6
(k
B
T)
2
n
E
F

E=E
F
=
=
nE
F
2
+
n
2
6E
F
(k
B
T)
2
(11)
3
Advanced Solid State Physics - Student Project SS 2013
3D
u =
_

0
E
3n
2E
3/2
F

Ef(E, T)dE
=
3n
2E
3/2
F
_
_
2E
5/2
5

E
F
0
+ ( E
F
)E
3/2
F
+

2
6
(k
B
T)
2
3
2

E=E
F
_
_
=
=
3
5
nE
F
+
3n
2E
3/2
F
_

2
12E
F
(k
B
T)
2
E
3/2
F
+

2
4
(k
B
T)
2
_
E
F
_
=
3
5
nE
F
+
n
2
4E
F
(k
B
T)
2
(12)
Bulk modulus, pressure, entropy, specic heat
Using the expression for the internal energy many other properties can be calculated
easily. Table 2 gives an overview about their dependency on the internal energy.
Table 2: Expressions for the specic heat, entropy, Helmholtz free energy, pressure and bulk
modulus as a function of the internal energy.
Specic heat c
V
=
_
u
T
_
V =const.
Entropy s =
_
C
V
T
dT
Helmholtz free energy f = u Ts
Pressure P =
F
V

N,T
Bulk modulus B = V
P
V
4