Magnetism of a degenerate electron gas

(Dated: April 21, 2012)

INTRODUCTION

The energy eigen values for the N particle system is given in terms of the occupation numbers np,s by En =
p,s p,s np,s

In class we examined the magnetic properties of substances in the presence of a magnetic eld when the the electrons are completely localized to individual atoms and the atoms have incomplete shells (i.e. they have have a net magnetic moment). However, this treatment is not valid for material where the electron wave functions are delocalized, such as metals. For these materials, the magnetic properties will arise mostly due to the conduction electrons which can be idealized as a degenerate electron gas. The contribution due to the nuclear intrinsic and orbital magnetic moments can be disregarded since they are orders of magnitude smaller than the electron counterparts. Qualitatively, we can identify two eects which will result in two distinct magnetic behaviors in the presence of an external magnetic eld. The alignment of the electron spins parallel to the external eld will increases the magnetic eld resulting in a paramagnetic behavior ( >0) known as Pauli paramagnetism, and the helical motion of electrons in quantized orbits around the direction of the external magnetic eld will create a magnetic eld apposing the external eld resulting in a diamagnetic( <0 ) behavior known as Landau diamagnetism. In a physical substance these two eects will compete with each other, but in this paper we will treat them separately. If the spin-orbit interactions are negligible, the net magnetic behavior of the substance will be given by the sum of the two.
PAULI PARAMAGNETISM

(4)

where Therefore En =
p

np,s = 0, 1

and
p,s

np,s = N

(np,+ + np, ) np,+ = N+

p

p2 0 B(N+ + N ) 2m and
p

(5)

where

np, = N

The partition function for the N particle system will be given by

N

QN =
N+ =0

e0 B(2N+ N )
[np,+ ]

p2 np,+ p 2m

e
[np, ]

p2 np, p 2m

(6) where the second and third summations over all sets [np,+ ], [np, ] restricted by = N+ and p np,+ np, = N = N N+ respectively. p The partition function of a system of N spinless particles of mass m will be given by Q0 = N
[np ]

p2 n p p 2m

= eFN

(7)

The hamiltonian of a (non relativistic) electron in the presence of a magnetic eld is given by H= eA 2 1 (P + ) 0 B 2m c (1)

e h where 0 (= 2mc ) is the intrinsic magnetic moment of the electrons, are the Pauli spin matrices, m is the electron mass, A is the vector potential and B is the magnetic eld. In this section we will completely ignore the orbital motion of the electrons and consider the hamiltonian as

Where the sum is restricted by np = N and FN is Helmholtz free energy of the system of N spineless particles of mass m we can see that the second and third sums in equation (6) are just the partition functions of systems of spineless particles of electron mass containing N+ and N N+ particles respectively.Therefore we can rewrite equation (6) as
N

QN = e0 BN
N+ =0

e20 BN+ Q0 + Q0 N+ N N

(8)

H=

p2 0 B 2m

(2)

The eigen values of the the single particle energy states will be given by
p,

By taking the natural logarithm of equation (8), dividing by N and substituting equation (7) we get ln ln QN = 0 B + N
N (20 BN+ FN+ F(N N+ ) ) N+ =0 e

p2 2m

0 B

(3)

(9)

2 By neglecting the terms of order O( ln N ) the above equaN tion can be rewritten as (18) the ctitious chemical potential() can be written in terms of the actual fermi energy as

FN+ + F(N N+ ) (KT )2 ln QN 2N+ ) (19) (xN ) = F (2xN )(1 = 0 B+ max (0 B( 1) ) 12( f (2xN ))2 N N N (10) By taking the derivative of equation (19) w.r.t x at x = 1 we can obtain the extrema by taking the derivative of 2 and substituting it in equation (16) we obtain the expresthe LHS w.r.t N+ and setting it to zero. If we consider sion for magnetic susceptibility for a degenerate electron N+ as the value of N+ corresponding to the maximum gas in the weak eld limit of equation (10), we get (N+ ) (N N+ ) = 20 B (11) 3N 2 (KT )2 0 (1 ) 2V F 12 2 F 3N 2 3n2 0 0 = 2V F 2 F (20)

where (N ) is the chemical potential of a system N spinless electron mass fermions The magnetization per volume of the system is given by M= 0 (2N+ N ) V (12) 1 ).

The susceptibility at T = 0 is given by 0 = (21)

we will solve this for low temperatures (i.e. KT F let

(2N+ N ) N

=r (13)

then

(1 r)N (1 + r)N ) ( ) = 20 B 2 2

Its clear that unlike the case for atomic paramagnetism discussed in class for Pauli paramagnetism there is no saturation for low temperatures. There is a limiting value for susceptibility at T = 0 Now we will consider the susceptibility for a highly non degenerate electron gas(z 1) we know that for a fermi gas N 3 = gV where = e
T

(1)l1
l=1

from equation (13) we see that for B=0 r=0. for small B we can taylor expand about r=0 and discarding the O(r2 ) terms. Then N r (xN ) N r (xN ) ( )+ |x=1/2 ( )+ |x=1/2 = 20 B 2 2 x 2 2 x (14) r= 20 B
(xN ) x |x=1/2 M B )

zl ln

(22)

h (2mT )1/2

is the thermal wavelength and z =

for our ctitious spinless system with g = 1, thus N 3 = V

(1)l1
l=1

zl ln

(23)

(15) is given by

The, susceptibility (dened as = = M in the weak eld limit. Thus B = V 22 0

(xN ) x |x=1/2

N 3 z V xN 3 (xN ) = KT ln V

(24)

(16)

taking the derivative of equation (24) at x = 1 and sub2 stituting it in equation (16) gives the expression for the susceptibility at high temperature in the weak eld limit = 2 N 2 n 0 = 0 KT V KT (25)

we have derived in class that for a(non relativistic) Fermi gas ,the Fermi energy( F ) is given by
F (N ) = (

3N 3 h2 )2 4gV 2m

Therefore for high temperature there is a Curie behavior. (17)

LANDAUE DIAMAGNETISM

and for low temperature (i.e. KT 1) the chemical F potential up to second order is given by (N ) =
F (N )(1

(KT ) ) 12 2 f

(18)

In this section we will considers the magnetic behavior of an electron gas in the presence of a magnetic eld due to the orbital motion, completely ignoring electron spin. Hence, the hamiltonian will be considered as H= 1 eA 2 (P + ) 2m c (26)

For the ctitious spinless system g = 1 while for the actual system g = 2. Therefore, using equations (17) and

3 If we consider a uniform magnetic eld along the Z direc tion(i.e. B = B k) we can conveniently choose the vector potential(A) as A = By. The Hamiltonian can now x be rewritten as H= eB 2 1 2 2 ((Px y) + Py + Pz ) 2m c (27) where ln Z =
kz

Lz 2

kz =

dkz Therefore
(kz h)2 2m h + e B (n+ 1 )) mc 2

V eB 2hc

dkz ln (1 + e(
kz = n=0

(34) where V = Lx Ly Lz if we substitute 0 = V eB ln Z = 2hc

e h 2mc

It is clear that the Hamiltonian is independent of x, therefor Px must be conserved(i.e the hamiltonian commutes withit) . Hence we can replace it by its Eigen value kx . h This gives eB 2 1 2 1 2 (( kx h y) + Py ) + P H= 2m c 2m z (28)

we get
(kz h)2 2m

dkz ln (1 + e(
kz = n=0

+2B0 (n+ 1 )) 2

The rst term of equation (28) is just the Hamiltonian of a displaced Harmonic oscillator with angular frequency eB c = mC . Therefore we can write the Hamiltonian as H= 1 2 1 P + c (N + ) h 2m z 2 (29)

(35) 1) we if we consider a weak magnetic eld (i.e. 0 B KT can use the Euler-Macluarin summation formula given by 1 f (j + ) 2 j=0

f (x) dx +

1 f (0) 24

(36)

Thus, equation (35) can be written as ln Z = V eB ( 2hc

where N is a number operator for the simple harmonic energy levels The eigen values will be given by
n

dx
0

ln(1 + e(20 BxT 1 0 B h 12

e(

(kz h)2 2m

)dkz

dkz
( kz )2 h 2m

1 2 1 = p + c (n + ) h 2m z 2

(30)

(37) ) +1

These energy levels are clearly degenerate since the eigen values are independent of the quantum number kx . Now we need to determine the the degeneracy of the energy levels. For this purpose we will consider the xy dimensions as Lx Ly . The phase space volume will give the degenaracy g= g= Lx Ly h2 dpdx 2pdp

from the substitution x = Bx its clear the rst term is independent of B, therefor it will have no contribution to the susceptibility and we will neglect it completely. 2 h substituting y = ( kz ) the second term becomes 2m y 1/2 dy +1 0 (38) where, in the above equation we have written down only the B dependent components The magnetic moment for unit volume of the system 1 is given by M = V ln Z Hence the weak eld magnetic B 1 susceptibility will be given by = V B ln Z B Thus ln Z(B) = V (2m)3/2 (0 B)2 1/2 6h3
ey z

e B(j+1) h e Bj h p2 mc 2m mc

g=

Lx Ly e B h 2 2 h c Lx Ly eB g= hc

(31)

= where F1/2 (z) =

This degeneracy corresponds the number of possible sites where the electron orbits can be centered at for a given energy. The grand partition function for the system is given by Z=
s

(2m)3/2 2 0 F1/2 (z) 3h2 1/2

(39)

(1 + ze s )

(32)

For low temperatures F 1, F 1 (z) 2(ln z) 2 and 2 ln z F Thus at T = 0 the magnetic susceptibility in the weak eld limit is given by 0 = 2(2m)3/2 2 1/2 0 F 3h3 N 0 n0 = = V2 F 2 F
2

y 1/2 dy ey 0 z +1 KT

is a Fermi Dirac integral

1

Thus, ln Z = Lx Ly eB hc

(40) (41)

ln (1 + e(
n=0 kz

(kz h)2 2m

h 1 + e B (n+ 2 )) mc

) since
2

(33)

3N h = ( 8V ) 3 2m

4 This is precisely 1 the susceptibility due to Pauli para3 magnetism at T=0 Now we will consider the case when temperatures are high (i.e when z 1). We can use the expansion ln(1 + x) x. for x 1. Thus, equation (35) can be written as e B 1 h zV eB 2m 1/2 ( ) {2sinh( )} ln Z = 2c h 2mc (42)

N and M

zV 3

(45)

N 2 B 0 3T V

(46)

Hence, the magnetic moment per unit volume will be given by 1 z0 xcosh(x) M= 3 { } sinh(x) sinh2 (x) (43)

So, for the highly non degenerate case, the weak eld susceptibility is given by = M N 2 n2 0 = = 0 B V 3T 3T (47)

h where x = 0 B and = (2mT )1/2 is the thermal wavelength The equilibrium number of particles (N) is given by

Therefore for high temperatures it has a Curie behavior.

lnZ z x zV N= 3 sinh(x) N =z thus M= N 0 1 { coth(x)} V x 1 (i.e. 0 B (44) KT )

REFERENCES

If the magnetic eld is weak, x

Huang K, 1987, Statistical Mechanics, 2nd edition, New york, John Wiley Landaue L.D. , Litshift E. M. , 1977 , Quantum Mechanics, 3rd edition, Oxford, Pergamon Pathria R.K., 1972, Statistical Mechanics, Peragamon,Oxford Schwabi F, 2002, Statistical Mechanics, 2nd edition, New york , Springer