Effect of Linear Deformation on Electrical Conductivity of Metal

Abstract

The effects of deformation on the electrical conductivity of different elemental metals were computed and studied based on pseudopotential formalism. The electron density parameters of deformed metals under the application of different strains were obtained for different metals. The poison ratio relating the transversal compression to elongation in the direction of applied deformation for different elemental metals were computed and used in this work. The results obtained revealed that there is a good agreement between the computed and experimental value of the electrical conductivity of metals. There is high concentration of electron in the high density region than in the lower density region these suggest that the higher the valence electron density in metals the higher the electrical conductivity of metals. The electrical conductivity of metals decreases as deformation (strains) increases for all the metals investigated. The effect of deformation is more pronounced on the electrical conductivity of noble and transition metals than in alkaline metals this could be due to the fact that every single valence electron in alkaline metals is free to move about with little collision between the interacting electrons which cause a strong repelling reaction in other electrons during deformation. The effect of deformation on electrical conductivity of metals also depends on the mobility, electronic concentration and nature of the metals.

Keywords: deformation, Fermi surface, resistivity, Brillouin zone, collision, pseudopotential model