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Thomas-Fermi Screening in a Metal (2D)

Interactive 2D simulator of Thomas-Fermi screening: a charged impurity embedded in a degenerate electron gas, showing the exponentially screened potential and the electron screening cloud that forms around it, with live Fermi energy, Fermi wavevector and screening length readouts.

Plasma Physics2DAdvanced60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

This top-down 2D companion drops the same charged impurity into a degenerate free-electron gas and renders the screening cloud that forms around it in-plane: hundreds of dots redistribute with a radial density that follows the Thomas-Fermi exponential profile, replacing the impurity's bare 1/r Coulomb field with a short-range φ(r) ∝ e^(−r/λ_TF)/r potential. A live side graph plots the screened potential against the unscreened one, while the carrier-density slider drives real Fermi-gas physics — Fermi wavevector, Fermi energy, density of states and the resulting screening length all update from the same free-electron formulas used for real metals.

⚙ Under the hood

A top-down 2D view of a charged impurity in a degenerate electron gas, with a density slider that drives the screening length and a live graph of the screened potential against bare Coulomb.

Thomas-Fermiscreeningelectron gascondensed matterFermi energyplasma physics2d

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install