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Electronic energy bands in metallic copper and silver

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

S. R. Tibbs
Affiliation:
H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol

Extract

The present discussion of the conduction levels of copper and silver was undertaken in view of the experimental investigations of the absorption and emission bands of metals, in the soft X-ray region, which have been carried out in this laboratory and elsewhere*. It is a well-known result of the electron theory of metals that, for cubic crystals, of lattice constant a, if k is the wave vector of an electron moving in the crystal lattice, there are discontinuities in the energy E of the electron for values of k such that

(n1, n2, n3) being the Miller indices of the planes for which Bragg reflexion of the electron waves takes place. If we draw the energy E as a function of k for a particular direction in the lattice, then we obtain, using the usual notation, curves such as those shown in fig. 1, d being the half-distance between the corresponding planes for which Bragg reflexion takes place.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1938

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References

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The energy curves s = 0, p = 0, d = 0 have not been shown, since for values of r near r 0 they lie much higher than the other curves. See, for example, the curves s = 0, p = 0 for copper, given by Krutter, loc. cit.

The energies given represent the interval from the bottom of the band to the state P (Fig. 1) for the (111) direction, not to the top of the band.

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