Hi,
The Drude Model assumed that atoms scatter off every single atom. In the Electrons & Phonons in 1D model, we tried to explain why this assumption was not accurate. However, I still don’t fully understand how this specific model proved that the assumption made in the Drude model is incorrect.
Thank you in advance for your help
Good question, this logic is indeed quite nontrivial.
When deriving the dispersion relation of electrons in 1D, we already consider electrons strongly interacting with the atomic potential: the atomic orbitals are electron states bound to different atoms. We then find that perfect periodicity of the crystal allows these electrons to continuously move from atom to atom according to the dispersion relation.
This means that the electron k-vector indeed does not change after every encounter of an atom, and instead electrons can move through a perfect crystal without encountering scattering.
That’s clear now, thank you very much!