Drude model

The Drude model describes electrical and thermal conduction in metals by treating electrons as a classical gas that accelerates between collisions with fixed ions.

Drude conductivity: The electrical conductivity predicted by the Drude model from electron density, charge, mass, and mean collision time. It is the model’s central result for how a metal responds to an electric field.
Electron: A negatively charged elementary particle that carries electric charge and participates in chemical bonding. The model treats mobile electrons as the charge carriers inside metals.
Sommerfeld model: A quantum model of conduction electrons that applies Fermi–Dirac statistics to a nearly free electron gas. It corrects Drude’s classical statistics while retaining a related free-electron picture.
Paul Drude: A German physicist who developed a classical electron theory of metallic conduction around the turn of the twentieth century. He introduced the model’s gas-like treatment of electrons in metals.
Drude-Sommerfeld model: A model of metal electrons that combines Drude’s collision picture with Fermi–Dirac statistics. It preserves the collision mechanism while replacing classical electron statistics.
Metallic bonding: Chemical bonding in metals, where valence electrons are delocalized across an array of positive ions. This electron-sea picture motivates treating conduction electrons as mobile particles.
Band theory: A quantum description of electrons in solids using allowed energy bands and forbidden gaps. It explains metal behavior through crystal energy states rather than classical collisions alone.
Electron discovery: The identification of the electron as a constituent of matter through experiments on cathode rays. Recognition of electrons made an electron-based account of metallic conduction possible.
Relaxation time: The characteristic time over which a perturbed population of particles returns toward equilibrium. Drude conductivity depends directly on the average interval between electron collisions.
Kinetic theory of gases: A framework that explains gas properties through the motion and collisions of microscopic particles. Drude adapts its particle-and-collision reasoning to electrons in a solid.

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