CHAPTER 6.

Free Electron Fermi Gas

 What is Potential Well?

A potential well is the region surrounding a local minimum of potential energy.

- Energy captured in a potential well is unable to convert to another type of energy

(kinetic energy in the case of a gravitational potential well) because it is captured
in the local minimum of a potential well.

- The graph of a 2D potential energy function is a potential energy surface that can be
imagined as the Earth's surface in a landscape of hills and valleys.
- Then a potential well would be a valley surrounded on all sides with higher terrain,
which thus could be filled with water (e.g., be a lake) without any water flowing away
toward another, lower minimum (e.g. sea level).
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A potential well is basically the energy required to be in a certain position. For example, if you have a hole,
and a ball in the hole, it will require a certain energy for it to get up and out of the hole. However, if it does
not have that energy, it's stuck at the bottom of a hole.

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 Example 1:

Find the lowest energy of a neutron of mass 1.6 x 10-27 kg confined to

a nucleus of size a= 10-14 m

Solution:
a= 10-14 m
mn= 1.6 x 10-27 kg
The lowest energy?

We know that the energy

corresponding to nth quantum state
in 1-D is given by

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 Example 2:

Find the lowest energy of an electron confined to a cubical box of side 1 Angstrom

Solution:
a= 10-10 m
mn= 9.1 x 10-31 kg
The lowest energy?

We know that the energy

corresponding to nth quantum
state in 1-D is given by E111

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 Fermi Level

Def: The Fermi level is the highest occupied molecular orbital in the valence band at 0
K, so that there are many states available to accept electrons, if the case were a metal
and is usually denoted by EF.

The Fermi level of a body is a thermodynamic quantity, and its significance is the
thermodynamic work required to add one electron to the body.

A precise understanding of the Fermi level—how it relates to electronic band structure

in determining electronic properties, how it relates to the voltage and flow of charge
in an electronic circuit—is essential to an understanding of solid-state physics.

Fermi level is the highest energy

state occupied by electrons in a
material at absolute zero
temperature. As the temperature is
increased, electrons start to exist
in higher energy states too.

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Types of Fundamental Particles
Fundamental particles (also called elementary particles) are the smallest building
blocks of the universe. The key characteristic of fundamental particles is that they
have no internal structure. In other words, they are not made up of anything else.

There are two types of fundamental particles:

1. Particles that make up all matter, called fermions

2. Particles that carry force, called bosons

Copyright ©2019 by FLS

Physics Department
UPSI
FUNDAMENTAL PARTICLES

A fermion is any particle that

has an odd half-integer (like
1/2, 3/2, and so forth) spin.
Quarks and leptons, as well as
most composite particles, like
protons and neutrons, are
fermions.

Bosons are those particles

which have an integer spin (0,
1, 2...).
All the force carrier particles
are bosons, as are those
composite particles with an
even number of fermion
particles (like mesons).

Copyright ©2019 by FLS

Physics Department
UPSI
 FUNDAMENTAL PARTICLE PHYSICS
Fermion and Boson

Electrons are an example of a type of particle called a fermion.

Other fermions include protons and neutrons.
In addition to their charge and mass, electrons have another fundamental property called spin.
A particle with spin behaves as though it has some intrinsic angular momentum.
This causes each electron to have a small magnetic dipole.

Electrons have spin ½, which can be aligned in two possible ways, usually referred to as
'spin up' or 'spin down'.
All fermions have half-integer spin.

A particle that has integer spin is called a boson.

Photons, which have spin 1, are examples of bosons.

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The spins on a chain of fermions (top) point in alternating directions,
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whereas the spins on a chain of bosons (bottom) all point in the same direction.
Fermions or bosons?
Electron is an elementary particle that
is a fundamental constituent of matter

gluon can be considered

to be the fundamental
exchange particle
underlying the strong
interaction between
protons and neutrons in a
nucleus.
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 Differences between electrical conduction using
classical physics theory and free electron theory

Free electron theory Classical physics theory

Electron are Fermion thus cannot

occupy the same quantum states. Said that all electron are equal
They obey Fermi- Dirac stat and in terms energies and not distributed
will occupy energy accordingly among multiple state.

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 The Fermi–Dirac Distribution

This constraint is the Pauli exclusion principle, which states that no two fermions can have the
exact same set of quantum numbers. It is for this reason that only two electrons can occupy
each electron energy level – one electron can have spin up and the other can have spin down,
so that they have different spin quantum numbers, even though the electrons have the same
energy.

These constraints on the behaviour of a system of many fermions can be treated statistically. The
result is that electrons will be distributed into the available energy levels according to the Fermi
Dirac Distribution:

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 Example 2:

Determine the value of Fermi function for an energy kT above the Fermi energy.

Solution:

Given E = EF + kT so
E - EF = kT

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 Electrical conductivity of metals

Electrical conductivity in metals is a result of the movement of electrically charged particles.

The atoms of metal elements are characterized by the presence of valence electrons -
electrons in the outer shell of an atom that are free to move about.
It is these 'free electrons' that allow metals to conduct an electric current.

Because valence electrons are free to move they can travel through the lattice that forms the
physical structure of a metal.
Under an electric field, free electrons move through the metal much like billiard balls
knocking against each other, passing an electric charge as they move.

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 Structural defects of the electrical resistivity of a pure metal

Dislocations Impurity atoms

Vacancies Grain boundaries

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 Hall effect

The Hall effect is the production of a voltage difference (the Hall voltage) across an electrical
conductor, transverse to an electric current in the conductor and a magnetic field
perpendicular to the current.
It was discovered by Edwin Hall in 1879

The Hall effect is due to the nature of the current in a conductor.

Current consists of the movement of many small charge carriers, typically electrons, holes, ions.
When a magnetic field is present that is not parallel to the direction of motion of moving charges,
these charges experience a force, called the Lorentz force.

When such a magnetic field is absent, the charges follow approximately straight, 'line of sight'
paths between collisions with impurities, phonons, etc.
However, when a magnetic field with a perpendicular component is applied, their paths between
collisions are curved so that moving charges accumulate on one face of the material. This leaves
equal and opposite charges exposed on the other face, where there is a scarcity of mobile charges.
The result is an asymmetric distribution of charge density across the Hall element that is
perpendicular to both the 'line of sight' path and the applied magnetic field. The separation of
charge establishes an electric field that opposes the migration of further charge, so a steady
electrical potential is established for as long as the charge is flowing.
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 Example 3

In a Hall effect experiment on a silver a potential of 59 uV is developed across

a foil of thickness 0.05 mm when a current of 28 mA in passed in a direction
perpendicular to a magnetic filed of 1.25 tesla.
Calculate the Hall coefficient of silver.

Solution:

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TUGASAN 7