Fermi Level
According to the Pauli principle, the electrons in the ground state occupy all the lowest-energy states, up to some Fermi energy . Since the energy is given by
- ,
this corresponds to occupying all the states with wave vectors, where is so-called Fermi wave vector, given by
- ,
where is the total number of electrons in the system, and V is the total volume. The Fermi energy is then
In a nearly-free-electron model of a -valent metal, one can replace with, where is the total number of metal ions.
Read more about this topic: Free Electron Model
Famous quotes containing the word level:
“So long as State constitutions say that all may vote when twenty-one, save idiots, lunatics, convicts and women, you are brought down politically to the level of those others disfranchised.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)