THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES OF AN ELECTRON GAS SYSTEM TRAPPED WITHIN VARIOUS SHAPES OF POTENTIALS

Abstract

The Thomas–Fermi (TF) equation is solved numerically for an electron gas system that interacts via the Coulomb potential. An emphasis is placed on how certain physical properties, such as the chemical potential and the total energy, change with the shape of the confinement at finite temperatures. By comparing these results with the results calculated for the noninteracting case, we are able to analyze how the inter-particle forces affect the thermodynamic properties of electrons. It is shown that the total energy and other properties of an electron gas is very sensitive to the particle interactions and the shape of the confining potential, even at high temperatures. The results are also applicable to nanostructures like two-dimensional quantum dot systems, wires.