Electron Thermalization in High-Mobility Liquids

Electron delocalization is most extreme in solid and liquid metals. Here valence electrons are spread over not two, four, or six atoms, but over the entire crystal network. The extreme mobility of electrons accounts for their typically high electrical and thermal conductivity. Non-loealized electrons carry an electric current more effectively than any other species, and, because of their slight weight, are particularly quick to respond to thermal disturbance. 

Using a microwave cavity capable of sustaining high pressures, it proved possible to monitor the relaxation of the mobility of electrons as they thermalized in the heavy rare gas liquids Ar, Kr and The thermalization times at close to the triple points were 0.9, 4.4 and 6.5 ns respectively with shorter values of 0.5, 2.2 and 4.4 ns found in the solid phase A full density dependence showed that a maximum in the thermalization time occurred at a density of ca 1.2 X 10 atoms per cm for all three compounds. For liquid methane thermalization was found to occur within the ca 200 ps response time of detection. ... 

After the electrons reach thermal equilibrium with the liquid, they diffuse at random through it until they find something to react with. We can apply an electric field across the liquid and measure how fast the electrons drift in the direction of the field. From that we can deduce the diffusion coefficient of the electrons. The drift velocity is proportional to the applied field strength, as long as the field strength is not too high. The drift velocity v per unit field strength E is called the mobility y ... 

Very High N (Liquid NoX 1). The electron under these conditions is in the field of strongly correlated scatterers and is thus strongly influenced by the structure of the medium. The thermal electron scattering cross section thermal electron mobility in... 

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