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In condensed matter physics, the Fermi surface is the surface in reciprocal space which separates occupied electron states from unoccupied electron states at zero temperature. [1] The shape of the Fermi surface is derived from the periodicity and symmetry of the crystalline lattice and from the occupation of electronic energy bands .
The electrons near the Fermi surface couple strongly with the phonons of 'nesting' wave number Q = 2k F. The 2 k F mode thus becomes softened as a result of the electron-phonon interaction. [ 6 ] The 2 k F phonon mode frequency decreases with decreasing temperature, and finally goes to zero at the Peierls transition temperature.
Fermi liquid theory (also known as Landau's Fermi-liquid theory) is a theoretical model of interacting fermions that describes the normal state of the conduction electrons in most metals at sufficiently low temperatures. [1] The theory describes the behavior of many-body systems of particles in which the interactions between particles may be ...
This spacing is called the electron affinity (note that this has a different meaning than the electron affinity of chemistry); in silicon for example the electron affinity is 4.05 eV. [16] If the electron affinity E EA and the surface's band-referenced Fermi level E F-E C are known, then the work function is given by
The Fermi level does not necessarily correspond to an actual energy level (in an insulator the Fermi level lies in the band gap), nor does it require the existence of a band structure. Nonetheless, the Fermi level is a precisely defined thermodynamic quantity, and differences in Fermi level can be measured simply with a voltmeter.
The concept of a nesting vector is illustrated in the Figure for the famous case of chromium, which transitions from a paramagnetic to SDW state at a Néel temperature of 311 K. Cr is a body-centered cubic metal whose Fermi surface features many parallel boundaries between electron pockets centered at and hole pockets at H.
The Fermi energy surface in reciprocal space is known as the Fermi surface. The nearly free electron model adapts the Fermi gas model to consider the crystal structure of metals and semiconductors , where electrons in a crystal lattice are substituted by Bloch electrons with a corresponding crystal momentum .
In solid-state physics, the valence band and conduction band are the bands closest to the Fermi level, and thus determine the electrical conductivity of the solid. In nonmetals, the valence band is the highest range of electron energies in which electrons are normally present at absolute zero temperature, while the conduction band is the lowest range of vacant electronic states.