Electronic conduction theory Drude model

The Drude model applies the kinetic theory of gases to metal conduction. It describes valence electrons as charged spheres that move through a soup of stationary metallic ions with finite chance for scattering. 

Before we leave the Drude model, we may derive the conductivity in terms of the collision theory. Let n electrons be moving in a certain direction at time t = 0 dn of these make a collision at time t, with constant probability P, within the time window dt. We obtain... 

Metals form a class of solids with characteristic macroscopic properties. They are ductile, have a silver-white luster, and they conduct electricity and heat remarkably well. An early, but still relevant microscopic model aimed at explaining the electrical conductivity, heat conductivity, and optical properties was proposed by Drude [10]. His model incorporates two important successes of modem science the discovery of the electron in 1887 by J. J. Thomson, and the molecular kinetic gas theory put forward by Boltzmann and Maxwell in the second half of the 19th century. 

Fowler proposed a theory in 1931 which showed that the photoelectric current variation with light frequency could be accounted for by the effect of temperature on the number of electrons available for emission, in accordance with the distribution law of Sommerfeld s theory of metals. Sommerfeld s theory (1928) had resolved some of the problems surrounding the original models for electrons in metals. In classical Drude theory, a metal had been envisaged as a three-dimensional potential well (or box) containing a gas of freely mobile electrons. This adequately explained their high electrical and thermal conductivities. However, because experimentally it is found that metallic electrons do not show a gaslike heat capacity, the Boltzman distribution law is inappropriate. A Fermi-Dirac distribution function is required, consistent with the need that the electrons obey the Pauli exclusion principle, and this distribution function has the form... 

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