Abstract
A NUMBER of recent researches1 have shown that electrons in some metals—in the first place in alkali metals—can be considered with sufficient approximation as free. The transparency of alkali metals in the ultra-violet region discovered by Wood2 has been recently explained by Zener3 from the point of view of free electrons. Immediately after the publication of Zener's communication, we calculated the optical constants n and k of the alkali metals, using the free electron gas model and taking into account the collisions of the electrons with the atomic lattice, and we obtained satisfactory agreement with the measured values.
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References
O'Bryan and Skinner, Phys. Rev., 44, 602; 1933.
Wood, Phys. Rev., 44, 353; 1933.
Zener, NATURE, 132, 968, Dec. 23, 1933.
Kronig, NATURE, 133, 211, Feb. 10, 1934.
Landolt-Börnstein, "Phys. Chem. Tab."
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HURGIN, J., PISARENKO, N. Optical Constants of Alkali Metals. Nature 133, 690 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133690a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133690a0
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