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Poisson's Equation: Relationship Between Work Function, Vacuum Electric Potential, and Fermi Level (Voltage)

Poisson's equation relates the electric field generated by stationary charges to the gradient of a scalar potential. It can be written as the partial differential equation relating the scalar potential to the charge density. This is known as Poisson's equation, which in its most general form gives the relationship between the Laplacian of the potential and the charge density. The work function is the minimum energy required to remove an electron from the surface of a solid to a point in the vacuum immediately outside the solid. It depends on the material and properties like crystal face and contamination. The work function determines the vacuum electric potential and is related to, but not the same as, the Fermi level within the solid material.

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61 views2 pages

Poisson's Equation: Relationship Between Work Function, Vacuum Electric Potential, and Fermi Level (Voltage)

Poisson's equation relates the electric field generated by stationary charges to the gradient of a scalar potential. It can be written as the partial differential equation relating the scalar potential to the charge density. This is known as Poisson's equation, which in its most general form gives the relationship between the Laplacian of the potential and the charge density. The work function is the minimum energy required to remove an electron from the surface of a solid to a point in the vacuum immediately outside the solid. It depends on the material and properties like crystal face and contamination. The work function determines the vacuum electric potential and is related to, but not the same as, the Fermi level within the solid material.

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jayant5253
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Poisson's equation

We have seen that the electric field generated by a set of stationary charges can be written as the gradient of a scalar potential, so that
(218)

This equation can be combined with the field equation (213) to give a partial differential equation for the scalar potential:
(219)

This is an example of a very famous type of partial differential equation known as Poisson's equation. In its most general form, Poisson's equation is written

WORK FUNCTION
In solid-state physics, the work function (sometimes spelled workfunction) is the minimum thermodynamic work (i.e. energy) needed to remove an electron from a solid to a point in the vacuumimmediately outside the solid surface. Here "immediately" means that the final electron position is far from the surface on the atomic scale, but still too close to the solid to be influenced by ambient electric fields in the vacuum. The work function is not a characteristic of a bulk material, but rather a property of the surface of the material (depending on crystal face and contamination).

Relationship between work function, vacuum electric potential, and Fermi level (voltage)[edit source | editbeta]

When the two metals depicted here are in thermodynamic equilibrium with each other as shown (equal Fermi levels), the vacuum electrostatic potential is not flat due to a difference in work function.

If an electron is removed from a solid to a state of zero total energy, then the thermodynamic work required is given by EF, where EF is the Fermi level (electrochemical potential) in that system. The work function is however defined by placing the electron into the vacuum nearby the surface, where there is an electrostatic potential ; at this point, the electron's total energy is not zero but instead Evac = e. [1] Thus, the work function W is defined by

In other words, it is the sum of the work required to completely remove the electron ( EF), and the work required to place it back just outside the surface (e). The work function is in fact a property of the surface material, and EF is fixed by the electrode that is attached to the material. Practically, this means that the material's work function acts to determine the value of (rather than the other way around). The electrode's internal voltage V can be defined as V [2] = EF/e, giving

In other words, if a battery is used to apply a voltage V to an electrode, then the actual produced in the vacuum will vary depending on the work function. W depends on the material the electrode is made from. The reason for this dependence of W on material can be attributed to a variety of effects (binding energy, surface dipoles, etc.), discussed below.

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