Quantized Plasmon Excitations of Electron Gas in Potential Well

Abstract

Using the Schr\"odinger-Poisson system in this paper the basic quantum features of plasmon excitations in a free noninteracting electron gas with arbitrary degeneracy is investigated. The standing wave solution of the free electron gas is derived from the corresponding linearized pseudoforce system with appropriate boundary conditions. It is shown that the plasmon excitation energies for electron gas confined in an infinite potential well are quantized eigenvalues of which are obtained. It is found that any arbitrary degenerate quantum electron gas possesses two different characteristic length scales, unlike the classical dilute electron gas, with the smaller length scale corresponding to the single particle oscillation and the larger one due to the collective Langmuir excitations. The probability density of the free electron gas in a box contains fine structures which are modulated over a larger pattern. The envelope probability density profile for the electron Fermi gas confined in an impenetrable well in different energy states are found to be quite similar to that of the free electron confined to an infinite potential well. However, the illustrative features of the plasmon theory presented in this research can be further elaborated in order to illuminate a wide range of interesting physical phenomenon involving both single particle as well as the collective features.