Free Electron Theory in Metals and Semiconductors

Abstract

Abstract One of the earliest successful approximations in the theory of metals was the free electron theory. This approximation starts with the notion that the metal contains a collection of ion cores, each core consisting of a nucleus and shells of tightly bound electrons, and a number of electrons that are not bound to any particular nucleus. The electrons are assumed to be essentially independent and are treated as being completely free, the metal simply acting as a box to contain them. The statistical counterpart of this assumption is that electrons in metals are described by particle statistics.