SSP-EXAM Discussion

About the DOS

About the DOS

par Timothee Jamin,
Nombre de réponses : 2

Hello,

I wanted to know if this way to calculate the DOS for the Free-electron model and nearly-free electron model is correct:

The energy for the free electron model can be expressed as:

\( E_{\vec{k}} = \frac{\hbar^{2}||\vec{k}||^{2}}{2m} \)

And for the nearly-free electron model, we express:

\( E_{\vec{k}} = \Delta + \frac{\hbar^{2}}{2m_{eff}}||\vec{k}||^{2} \)


So, if we want to have the number of quantum states below a given energy \( E_{k} \):

\( \Phi(E_{k}) \times (\frac{2\pi}{L})^{D} = 2 \times V_{D} \)

where D is the dimension, and \( V_{D} \) is the distance in 1D \( ( V_{D} = k ) \), the area of a circle in 2D \( ( V_{D} = \pi k^{2} ) \) and the volume of a sphere in 3D \( ( V_{D} = \frac{4}{3} \pi k^{3} ) \).

From here, we express \( \Phi(E_{k})  \) in function of the energy, and we make the derivation to obtain the DOS.


Thank you in advance for your answer


En réponse à Timothee Jamin

Re: About the DOS

par Cedric Crespos,
Hi, it is totally right for 2D and 3D but the procedure is slightly different for 1D case.
In 1D, you need to calculate first g(k) and then express g(E) as g(E)=g(k) dk/dE (see homework solutions of problem II - question 2).

CC
En réponse à Cedric Crespos

Re: About the DOS

par Timothee Jamin,
Hello,

Is it possible to clarify why it is necessary to use \( g(E) = g(k) \frac{dk}{dE} \)?

Because if we express the number of quantum states below a given energy Ek:

\( \Phi (E_{k}) \frac{2\pi}{L} = k \times 2 \)

We multiply by 2 if we take into account the Pauli principle.

\( \Phi (E_{k}) =\frac{L}{2\pi} k \times 2  \)

Then,
Because of the boundary condition, we know that we can express k as:

\( k = \sqrt{\frac{2mE}{\hbar^{2}}} \)

So,

\( \Phi (E_{k}) =\frac{L}{2\pi} \sqrt{\frac{2mE}{\hbar^{2}}} \times 2  \)

Then to have the DOS we do:

\( g(E) = \frac{d\Phi (E_{k})}{dE} = \frac{L}{2\pi} \sqrt{\frac{2m}{\hbar^{2}}} \frac{d(\sqrt{E})}{dE} \times 2  \)

\( g(E) = \frac{L}{2\pi} \sqrt{\frac{2m}{\hbar^{2}}} \frac{1}{2\sqrt{E}} \times 2 \)

Which is exactly the same results as the one in the correction.

So, what is the part of the of my reasoning that failed and needs to take into account the fact that g(E) = g(k) dk/dE?

Thank you in advance for your reply.