Engineering Physics

PHY-109
Solid State Physics-2
ELECTROMAGNETIC THEORY QUANTUM MECHANICS

LASER WAVES

Dr. Jeeban Pd Gewali

Department of Physics
Lovely Professional University
SOLID STATE PHYSICS
Phagwara, Punjab-144411

FIBER OPTICS
Syllabus

 Free electron theory (Introduction).

 Diffusion and drift current (qualitative).
 Fermi energy, Fermi-Dirac distribution function.
 Band theory of solids - formation of allowed and forbidden energy
bands.
 Semiconductors and insulators, Fermi level for intrinsic and extrinsic
semiconductors.
 Direct and indirect band gap semiconductors.
 Concept of effective mass - electrons and holes.
 Hall effect (with derivation).
 Solid

Metals: Semiconductor/Insulators:
Na, Fe, Cu, Al, Au, Ag, Ti, Ni, Pt Si, Ge, GaAs, BN, Al2O3, ZnO,
etc. TiO2, SiO2, CdTe, PbS, ZnS etc.

12/19/21 PHY109 (ENGINEERING PHYSICS) 3

Metals
 The simplest metals are the alkali metals with one valence electrons such as
Na, K, Li etc.
 The electronic configuration of sodium is Na- 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s1.
 The last electron behaves as a conduction electrons in metal which is also
called the free electron.
 The free electron behaves like the molecules in a perfect gas and are called
free electron gas.
 The free electron theory considers the force between the conduction
electrons and the ion cores are neglected so that the total energy of the
electron is all kinetic and the potential energy is taken to be zero. Therefore
the motion of the electrons within the metal is free because there are no
collisions, similar to the molecules of an ideal gas.
Free electron theory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttdtdLfn9HU
 It was believed that many physical properties of metals including electrical
and thermal conductivities can be understood by considering free electron
model. The works of Lorentz and Drude are important to cite here.
Properties of Metals
  Metals obey ohm’s law which says that in steady state the
current density is proportional to the applied electric field
strength E, i.e.
 Wiedemann and Franz law:
Here is defined as the electrical conductivity of the medium. The law states that, for metals, the ratio of
thermal and electrical conductivities is directly
 Metals possesses high electrical and thermal conductivities. proportional to the absolute temperature.
 At low temperature, the resistivity is proportional to the fifth
power of absolute temperature i.e. where,
 The resistance of the metals increases with the rise in Or,
temperature. i.e. they have positive temperature coefficient.
The resistance of certain metals vanishes at absolute zero and
they exhibit the phenomenon of superconductivity.
 The resistivity is inversely proportional to the pressure for
most of the metals i.e. .
Comparison of bonds
Classical Picture and Lorentz-Drude Model

• 1900,
   Drude explained electrical and thermal conductivity of metals using the concept
of mobile free electrons.
Later, Drude and Lorentz proposed the free electron theory (Lorentz-Drude theory).

The assumptions of free electron theory are:

• Metal consists of ion cores (nucleus and core electrons).
• The free (valence) electrons in a metal are treated as an ideal gas of free particles.
• The valence electrons surround the ion core and are free to move within the metaland
consequently responsible for the conductivity.

• The electrons obey Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics: the free electrons are in thermal
• equilibrium with a Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution =>
Maxwell boltzmann statistics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ9D4Jz95-A
12/19/21 PHY109 (ENGINEERING PHYSICS) 7
Ohm’s Law
Classical Picture and Lorentz-Drude Model
• We begin by assuming that
• the free electrons in a metal, like the molecules in a gas, move in
random directions and undergo frequent collisions.
• These collisions are not billiard-ball collisions with other electrons but
represent the scattering of Electron waves by irregularities in the
crystal structure, both defects such as impurity atoms and also atoms
temporarily out of place as they vibrate.
• As we will see later, the Atoms of a perfect crystal lattice do not
scatter free Electron waves except under certain specific
circumstances.
Electrical Properties of Metals
• If  is the mean free path between the collisions of a free electron, the average time
between collisions is
 Let N be the number of atoms and consider
that each atom contribute one free
electron, then the number of free electrons
will also be N.
Consider V is the volume of the system,
then the number of free electrons per unit
volume is

Drift velocity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=qg0JY4GNK0w
Electrical Properties of Metals
•A
  potential difference V across the ends of a conductor of length L produces
an electric field of magnitude E=V/L in the conductor. This field exerts a force
of ‘eE’ on a free electron in the conductor, whose acceleration is

An electric field produces a general drift superimposed on

the random motion of a free electron. The electron’s path
between collisions is actually slightly curved because of
the acceleration due to the field.

• When the electron undergoes a collision, it bounce back in an arbitrary

direction and on the average, no longer has a component of velocity parallel to
E. Imposing the field E on the free electron gas in a metal superimposes a
general drift on the faster but random motions of the electron. We can
therefore ignore the electron’s motion at the Fermi velocity in calculating the
drift velocity vd.
Electrical
Properties
𝐹 𝑒𝐸
of Metals  
𝑎=
𝑚
=
𝑚
Electrical Properties of Metals

 
  or I
Electrical Properties of Metals: Resistivity
•• The
  scattering of free electron waves in a metal that leads to its
electric resistance is caused both by structural defects and by ions
out of place as they vibrate.
• Imperfections of the former kind do not depend on temperature but
on the purity of the metal and on its history. The resistivities of cold-
worked metals (such as “hard drawn” wires) are lowered by
annealing because the number of defects is thereby decreased.
• On the other hand, lattice vibrations increase in amplitude with
increasing temperature, and their contribution to resistivity
accordingly goes up with temperature. Thus the resistivity of a metal
is

  is the residual resistivity, due to the scattering by impurities. Independent of temperature.

At zero temperature, the residual resistivity dominates.

is the resistivity due to the scattering by phonons (lattice vibrations). Depends on temperature.
As temperature increases, resistivity of metals increases due to the increase of lattice vibrations
=>the scattering of electron with phonons increases.
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𝑛=𝑁/𝑉
Electrical Properties of Metals
number
 
Mean free path (λ): The mean distance between two successive  e  ne
collision. volume

Mean collision time (): The mean time between two successive
collision.

Drift velocity: motion of charge carriers (electron or hole) in

electric field

• 
Mobility: ; unit: cm2 V-1 sec-1
Electron mobility is the measure of how fast an electron can
move through a metal or semiconductor under the influence of
Electrical conductivity: ; J and E are current external electric field.
Mobility μ is defined as the magnitude of drift velocity per unit
density and electric field. Unit: (ohm m)-1 electric field. μ=E∣vd∣.

The relation between and is:

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Electrical Properties of Metals
Drift
•Drift
  current: Current due to drift of charge
carriers in electric field.

Diffusion current:Current due to diffusion of

charge carriers from heavily concentrated region
to the low concentrated region.

and are diffusion coefficient and concentration

gradient.
12/19/21 PHY109 (ENGINEERING PHYSICS) 18
Wiedemann-Franz Law (1853)

(Ludwig) Lorenz Number

(derived via quantum
mechanical treatment)

 1  2 k B2 8 W  
L   2.45  10
T 3e 2
K2

N/V kF vF F TF
×1022 /cm3 ×108 /cm ×108 cm/s eV ×104 K
Li 4.70 1.11 1.29 4.72 5.48
Na 2.65 0.92 1.07 3.23 3.75
Cu 8.45 1.36 1.57 7.00 8.12
Au 5.90 1.20 1.39 5.51 6.39
Be 24.20 1.93 2.23 14.14 16.41
Al 18.06 1.75 2.02 11.63 13.49
Pb 13.20 1.57 1.82 9.37 10.87
Wiedemann-Franz law
Wiedemann-Franz law