Graduate Lecture Series

29 June – 3 July, 2009

Prof Ngee-Pong Chang

Lecture 2

Fermi Gas
Enrico Fermi Paul Dirac
1901 - 1954 1902 - 1984
 Band Theory of Metals

Start
with
isolated
Sodium
Atom

Ionisation Energy of Sodium 5.14 eV

 Band Theory of Metals

Ionisation Energy of Sodium 5.14 eV

Band Theory of Metals
 Band Theory of Metals

Bring
two
Sodium
Atoms
together

Splitting of 3s level with 2 Sodium

atoms
 Band Theory of Metals

Bring
six
Sodium
Atoms
together

Splitting of 3s level with 6 Sodium

atoms
Band Theory of Metals

Splitting of 3s levels with Sodium

atoms in crystalline solid
Band Theory of Metals
 Fermi-Dirac Distribution

electrons

holes
 Probability of Occupancy

T=0

1.0
T>0

0.0
Probability of Occupancy
 Filling up the Fermi Sea
In One Dimensional Box
30
Energy in

units
20

²F

10
1-Dimensional Box
 1-Dimensional Fermi Gas
Sum Over
Spins
 1-Dimensional Fermi Gas
Single Spin
Orientation

Fermi Surface
dependence on
number of
electrons
 2-Dimensional Fermi Gas
Single Spin
Orientation

Fermi Surface
dependence on
number of
electrons
 3-Dimensional Fermi Gas
Single Spin
Orientation

Fermi Surface
dependence on
number of
electrons
 1-Dimensional Fermi Gas
Single Spin
Orientation

Total Energy
 2-Dimensional Fermi Gas
Single Spin
Orientation

Total Energy
 3-Dimensional Fermi Gas
Single Spin
Orientation

Total Energy
3-Dimensional Density of States
2-Dimensional Density of States
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c5/DOS_multdim.jpg
 3-Dimensional Fermi Gas
Density of
States
 2-Dimensional Fermi Gas
Density of
States
 1-Dimensional Fermi Gas
Density of
States
Conduction Band

Valence Band
Woodward Yang harvard lecture notes
CBO =conduction band offset
2-Dimensional Density of States
Quantum Wire
http://boulder.research.yale.edu/Boulder-
2005/Lectures/Matveev/Boulder%20lecture.pdf
A graphene nanoribbon field-effect transistor (GNRFET). Here
contacts A and B are at two different Fermi levels EF1 and . EF2
Ballistic Conductor
 Landauer formula

i t
t’ i’

1927 - 1999

Conductance
 Gas Pressure on the Wall

θ
o s
c
A
v
δ
t

θ µ

A
 Pressure due to
Non-Relativistic Degenerate Fermi Gas

Equation of state for Fermi Gas

since at T = 0

We have

for a metal
White dwarf as seen by Hubble Space
Telescope
 What's Inside a White Dwarf?

To say that white dwarfs are strange is an understatement. An

earth-sized white dwarf has a density of
1 x 109 kg/m3.

In comparison, the earth itself has an average density of only

5.4 x 103 kg/m3.

That means a white dwarf is 200,000 times as dense!