Abstract
This article discusses the computer simulation of a classical model of electric conductivity in metals. Its objective is mainly didactic. It allows a microscopic interpretation of the phenomenological laws studied in introductory physics courses. The model is implemented in the one- and two-dimensional copper lattice. In the latter case, the results are in partial agreement with the experimental data concerning the conduction in copper. The model considers the collisions between a free electron gas and the nuclei oscillating around the equilibrium lattice positions with average energy proportional to the room temperature and velocity distribution according to Maxwell–Boltzmann statistics. The collisions are supposed to be elastic, and a suitable lattice relaxation mechanism is considered. The results of the simulation concern the calculation of various quantities such as the electron root mean square velocity, the mean free time, the drift velocity, etc., either in the absence of an external electric field or in the presence of electric fields of various intensities. The dependence of the results on electric field intensity is reported and commented on and the validity of the model is verified. © 1996 American Institute of Physics.
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