Electrical conduction in metals

DEC 01, 1978

The modern theory was created fifty years ago by Felix Bloch; it still provides the basis for understanding conduction, but many challenges remain.

DOI: 10.1063/1.2994869

Philip B. Allen

William H. Butler

Fifty years ago in the Zeitschrift für Physik, two papers were published which laid the foundations for the modern quantum theory of solids. Arnold Sommerfeld quantized the theory of the electron gas, and Felix Bloch showed how this could be generalized to a realistic theory for electrons in solids. In a delightful article in PHYSICS TODAY (December 1976 page 23) Bloch has recounted the circumstances in which he came to work on the electron theory of metals in Leipzig as Heisenberg’s first graduate student.

References

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8. F. Bloch, Z. Phys. 59, 208 (1930).https://doi.org/ZEPYAA
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Nb3Sn: D. W. Woodard, G. D. Cody, Phys. Rev. 136, A166 (1964); https://doi.org/PHRVAO
Nb3Ge: H. Lutz et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 36, 1576 (1976); Nb3Sb, ref. 22.https://doi.org/PRLTAO
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also see his Nobel Address Rev. Mod. Phys. 50, 191 (1978).https://doi.org/RMPHAT
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see also his Nobel Address Rev. Mod. Phys. 50, 203 (1978).https://doi.org/RMPHAT
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23. H. Wiesmann et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 38, 782 (1977).https://doi.org/PRLTAO

More about the Authors

Philip B. Allen. State University of New York, Stony Brook.

William H. Butler. Oak Ridge National Laboratory.