1.

the difficulty faced by classical free electron theory was corrected by sommerfeld in 1928 who discussed the
behaviour of free elctron gas by applying the quantum theory (ie applying fermi dirac distribution ) and pauli's
exclusion principle)
2. he suggested a model in which potential inside the metal is taken constant hence the force acting on the electron is
zero
3. potential energy of electron at rest inside the metal must be lower than that of electron outside the metal
4. the conduction electron are assumed to be in a potential well
5. the metal is replaced by a box containg non interacting gas of electron called as free electron fermi gas
6. these free electron gas are different from ordinary gas in some respects like the electron gas is charged while
ordinary gas molecules are mostly neutral second the concentration of electron in metals is much larger than the
ordinary gas.
7. according to the restriction quantum mechanics there would be a series of very closely spaced energy level which
would limit the possible value of their energies. hence the energy levels are quantised
8. the conduction electron it follows the pauli's exclusion principle it is no two electrons can have same quantum
number
9. the quantum number suggest that the allowed state of electron to be in the central field but we do not know the
exact quantum number of the particle in a box
10. hence the solution of the the wave equation shall describe the electron wave in the orbit and determine the
probabilty of finding electron at any point in the space
11. now we will find the solution of the wave equation
suppose an electron of mass m is free to move inside one dimensional box
 CONCLUSION- this equation shows that the
energy varies as a square of quantum
n th energy level of electron number n in one dimensional free electron
i.e eigen value confined to length L.

1 mark define
eigen value is the energy level
of electron which can be obtained by
solving the schrodinger wave equation of electron
eigen function= wave function of electron which is obtained by solving the schrodinger wave equation for a
free electron in a potential box
integrating from 0 to L

a is a constant called as normalization constant