Effect of Coulomb interaction on chemical potential of metal film

Abstract

The chemical potential of a metal film within the jellium model taking into account the Coulomb interaction between electrons is calculated. The surface potential is modelled as the infinite rectangular potential well. The behaviour of the chemical potential as a function of the film thickness is studied, the quantum size effect for this quantity is analysed. It is shown that taking into account the Coulomb interaction leads to a significant decrease of the chemical potential and to an enhancement of the quantum size effect.

Keywords:

• Quantum size effect
• metal slab
• metal film
• chemical potential
• jellium model

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Editor and two anonymous referees for careful reading of the manuscript and useful suggestions.

Notes

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.