PHZ 5941

Condensed Matter I
Problem Set 2 Solution
2.1 Problem 2.1, A&M, Pg. 53.
(a) In 2D the relation between the number density of electrons n and the Fermi wave vector
k
F
is
n = 2
_
|

k|<k
F
d
2
k
(2)
2
=
1
2
2
k
2
F
=
k
2
F
2
. (1)
(b) The denition of r
s
in 2D is r
2
s
= 1/n. The relation between r
s
and k
F
is therefore
r
2
s
=
1
n
=
2
k
F
r
s
=

2
k
F
. (2)
(c) The density of states is given by the following integral
g(E) = 2
_
d
2
k
(2)
2

_
E
h
2
k
2
2m
_
, (3)
from which it follows that
g(E) =
_
d
2
k
2
2

_
k
2mE
h
2
_
h
2
k/m
=
_
2kdk
2
2

_
k
2mE
h
2
_
h
2
k/m
=
m
h
2
_

0
dk
_
k
2mE
h
2
_
. (4)
If E > 0 the delta function is satised for one value of k and the result is m/( h
2
). If E < 0
the delta function is never satised for any k and the result is 0. Thus the density of states
is
g(E) =
_

_
m
h
2
E > 0,
0 E 0.
(5)
(d) The Sommerfeld expansion for n has the form
n =
_
g(E)f(E)dE =
_

0
g(E)dE +

n=1
(k
B
T)
2n
a
n
g
(2n1)
() (6)
where the a
n
s are constants of order unity. If g is constant then g
(
n)() = 0 for all n > 1
and only the rst term remains.
n =
_

0
g(E)dE =
m
h
2
(7)
from which it obviously follows that
=
h
2

m
n =
h
2

m
k
2
F
2
=
h
2
k
2
F
2m
= E
F
. (8)
(e) In 2D we can actually do to the integral for n analytically and compare the result with
that of the Sommerfeld expansion
n =
_

dEg(E)
1
e
(E)/k
B
T
+ 1
=
m
h
2
_

0
dE
1
e
(E)/k
B
T
+ 1
(9)
Letting z = e
(E)/k
B
T
for which dE = k
B
Tdz/z we then have
n =
m
h
2
k
B
T
_
e
/k
B
T
0
dz
1 + z
=
m
h
2
ln(1 + e
/k
B
T
). (10)
Multiplying through by h
2
/m we then have
E
F
= k
B
T ln(1 + e
/k
B
T
) = k
B
T ln(e
/k
B
T
(1 + e
/k
B
T
)) = + ln(1 + e
/k
B
T
). (11)
(f) For k
B
T E
F
we can Taylor expand the log with the result
E
F
+ k
B
Te
/k
B
T
(12)
The correction term k
B
Te
/k
B
T
exponentially small and can safely be ignored.
(g) The Sommerfeld expansion amounts to performing a Taylor expansion of in powers
of k
B
T. Such an expansion will never see terms like k
B
Te
/k
B
T
which are nonanalytic
when T 0 (there is an essential singularity).
2.2 Problem 2.3, A&M, Pg. 54.
(a) If e
/k
B
T
>> 1 then the Fermi-Dirac distribution reduces to the Maxwell-Boltzmann
distribution. In this limit the number density of fermions is
n
_

0
g(E)e
(E)/k
B
T
dE =
m
h
2

2m
h
2
e
/k
B
T
_

0
E
1/2
e
E/k
B
T
dE (13)
where we have used the density of states for free electrons in 3D
g(E) =
m
h
2

2mE
h
2
. (14)
Then, using the fact that
_

0
x
1/2
e
x
= (3/2) =

/2 we obtain
n e
/k
B
T
m
3/2
(k
B
T)
3/2
2
1/2

3/2
h
3
. (15)
Finally, since (4/3)r
3
s
= 1/n we nd
r
s
=
_
3
4n
_
1/3
= e
/3k
B
T
3
1/3

1/6
h(2mk
B
T)
1/2
. (16)
2
(b) For e
/k
B
T
1 it follows from (a) that we must have
r
s

_
h
2
2mk
B
T
_
1/2
(17)
The right hand side of this inequality is the de Broglie wave length of an electron with
energy k
B
T (the thermal de Broglie wave length). The condition for classical statistics to be
applicable to a Fermi gas at temperature T is then, not surprisingly, that the mean spacing
between fermions should be much larger than the thermal de Broglie wave length.
(c) Plugging in the appropriate constants one can readily show that
r
s
a
0

_
h
2
2ma
2
0
k
B
T
_
1/2

_
1.7 10
5
K
T
_
1/2
. (18)
Since r
s
/a
0
is of order 1 for typical metallic densities we see that it is important to treat the
electrons using Fermi-Dirac statistics up to quite high temperatures.
(d) There are several (equally unpleasant) ways to verify the desired result here. One is to
start with the relation between n and k
F
in 3D,
n =
k
3
F
3
2
=
1
3
2
_
2m
h
2
_
3/2
_
h
2
k
2
F
2m
_
3/2
=
1
3
2
_
2m
h
2
_
3/2
(k
B
T
F
)
3/2
. (19)
Here we have, of course, used the fact that k
B
T
F
= E
F
= h
2
k
2
F
/(2m). From this one can
readily verify that
3

4
n
_
m
2k
B
T
F
_
3/2
=
m
3
4
3
h
3
. (20)
For v = 0 we have (referring to Eq. 2.1 and 2.2 of A& M for the Maxwell-Boltzmann and
Fermi-Dirac velocity distributions) we have
f
B
(0) = n
_
m
2k
B
T
_
3/2
(21)
and
f(0) =
m
4
3
h
3
1
e
/k
B
T
+ 1

m
4
3
h
3
. (22)
It then follows from the above result that
f
B
(0)
f(0)
=
4
3

_
T
F
T
_
3/2
. (23)
3