Simple model for electric current in metals.
Also have a look at the Thompson and Rutherford model of the atom, and the Bohr model of the atom.
Edit and compile if you like:
% Author: Izaak Neutelings (July 2018) \documentclass[border=3pt,tikz]{standalone} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{physics} \usepackage{bm} \usepackage{tikz} \tikzset{>=latex} % for LaTeX arrow head \usetikzlibrary{decorations.markings} \usepackage{xcolor} \colorlet{Ecol}{orange!90!black} %\colorlet{charge+}{blue!80!white} \tikzstyle{charge0}=[top color=green!80!black!50,bottom color=green!80!black,shading angle=20] \tikzstyle{charge+}=[top color=red!50,bottom color=red!70!black,shading angle=20] \tikzstyle{charge-}=[top color=blue!50,bottom color=blue!80,shading angle=20] \tikzstyle{metal}=[top color=black!15,bottom color=black!25,middle color=black!5,shading angle=10] \tikzset{ EField/.style={thick,Ecol,decoration={markings, mark=at position #1 with {\arrow{latex}}}, postaction={decorate}}, EField/.default=0.5} \begin{document} % CONDUCTION MODEL \def\R{0.21} % ion radius \def\a{0.90} % scale \def\Rx{0.2*\a*\Ny} \def\Ry{0.5*\a*\Ny} \def\Nx{6} % number of ions columns \def\Ny{3} % number of ions rows \def\L{\a*(\Nx-1)} % length \def\electron#1#2#3{ \node[charge-,draw=black,circle,fill,inner sep=0.8,scale=0.5,line width=0.3] (e) at (#1*\a,#2*\a) {$\bm-$}; \draw[->,green!60!black] (e) --++ (#3*0.7*\a); } \begin{tikzpicture} \fill[metal] (0,{-\Ry}) arc (270:90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}) --++ ({\L},0) arc (90:-90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}); \draw[black!80] (0,{-\Ry}) arc (270:90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}); \draw[black!80,dashed] ({\L},{-\Ry}) arc (270:90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}); % IONS \foreach \j [evaluate={\y=\a*(\j-\Ny/2-0.5);}] in {1,...,\Ny}{ \foreach \i in {1,...,\Nx}{ %[evaluate={\x=\j*\a;}] \draw[charge+] ({(\i-1)*\a},\y) circle (\R) node[scale=1.4*\a,inner sep=1] {$+$}; } } %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 0 \electron{-0.25}{ 0.55}{ -99:0.6} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 1 \electron{ 0.10}{-0.55}{ 210:0.7} \electron{ 0.40}{ 0.35}{ 120:0.5} \electron{ 0.55}{ 1.30}{ 10:0.6} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 2 \electron{ 0.65}{-1.30}{-160:0.6} \electron{ 1.30}{-0.40}{ 30:0.6} \electron{ 1.15}{ 0.40}{ 210:0.6} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 3 \electron{ 2.35}{-0.70}{ -40:0.6} \electron{ 2.05}{ 0.55}{ -40:0.6} \electron{ 2.30}{ 1.30}{ -75:0.7} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 4 \electron{ 3.30}{-1.30}{ 20:0.5} \electron{ 3.40}{ 1.10}{-110:0.6} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 5 \electron{ 3.38}{-0.45}{ -40:0.6} \electron{ 3.90}{ 0.40}{ 175:0.7} \electron{ 4.35}{ 1.30}{ -20:0.6} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 6 \electron{ 4.45}{-0.95}{ -80:0.6} \electron{ 5.25}{-0.40}{ 45:0.5} \electron{ 4.60}{-0.05}{-110:0.6} \electron{ 5.30}{ 0.60}{-150:0.6} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% \draw[black!80] (0,{-\Ry}) arc (-90:90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}) --++ ({\L},0) arc (90:-90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}) -- cycle; \end{tikzpicture} % CONDUCTION MODEL \begin{tikzpicture} \fill[metal] (0,{-\Ry}) arc (270:90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}) --++ ({\L},0) arc (90:-90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}); \draw[black!80] (0,{-\Ry}) arc (270:90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}); \draw[black!80,dashed] ({\L},{-\Ry}) arc (270:90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}); % IONS \foreach \j [evaluate={\y=\a*(\j-\Ny/2-0.5);}] in {1,...,\Ny}{ \foreach \i in {1,...,\Nx}{ %[evaluate={\x=\j*\a;}] \draw[charge+] ({(\i-1)*\a},\y) circle (\R) node[scale=1.4*\a,inner sep=1] {$+$}; } } % ELECTRIC FIELD \foreach \j [evaluate={\y=0.9*\a*(\j-\Ny/2);}] in {0,...,\Ny}{ \draw[EField] ({\L+\a},\y) -- (-\a,\y); } %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 0 \electron{-0.25}{ 0.55}{ 2:0.8} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 1 \electron{ 0.08}{-0.40}{ 6:0.8} \electron{ 0.40}{ 0.30}{ 8:0.9} \electron{ 0.50}{ 1.30}{ -4:0.7} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 2 \electron{ 0.55}{-1.25}{ -6:0.7} \electron{ 1.30}{-0.40}{ 3:0.8} \electron{ 1.35}{ 0.40}{ -7:0.7} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 3 \electron{ 2.30}{-0.70}{ 2:0.8} \electron{ 2.75}{ 0.55}{ 6:0.7} \electron{ 2.40}{ 1.15}{ 10:0.8} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 4 \electron{ 3.25}{-1.32}{ 6:0.8} \electron{ 3.30}{ 1.30}{ -9:0.7} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 5 \electron{ 3.35}{-0.70}{ -7:0.7} \electron{ 3.80}{ 0.40}{ -2:0.8} \electron{ 4.40}{ 1.30}{ -1:0.9} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 6 \electron{ 4.45}{-1.25}{ -6:0.8} \electron{ 5.05}{-0.42}{ 4:0.7} \electron{ 4.40}{-0.30}{ -2:0.7} \electron{ 5.30}{ 0.60}{ -5:0.9} %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% \draw[->,thick,green!60!black] ({\L+1.05*\Rx},-0.7*\Ry) --++ (0.7,0) node[pos=0.5,above=-1] {$v_\mathrm{d}$}; \draw[black!80] (0,{-\Ry}) arc (-90:90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}) --++ ({\L},0) arc (90:-90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}) -- cycle; \end{tikzpicture} % CONDUCTION MODEL \begin{tikzpicture} \def\NE{3} \def\L{6} \def\a{0.3*\L} \def\b{0.7*\L} \def\Rx{0.4} \def\Ry{1.0} \fill[metal] (0,-\Ry) arc (270:90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}) --++ ({\L},0) arc (90:-90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}); \draw[black!80] (0,-\Ry) arc (270:90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}); \draw[black!80,dashed] (\L,-\Ry) arc (270:90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}); \draw[black!40,dashed] (\a,-\Ry) arc (270:90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}); \draw[black!40,dashed] (\b,-\Ry) arc (270:90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}); % ELECTRIC FIELD \foreach \j [evaluate={\y=-\Ry+(\j-0.5)*2*\Ry/\NE;}] in {1,...,\NE}{ \draw[EField] (-1.2*\Rx,\y) -- (\L+1.2*\Rx,\y); } \draw[black!80] (0,-\Ry) arc (-90:90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}) --++ (\L,0) arc (90:-90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}) -- cycle; \draw[black!40] (\a,-\Ry) arc (-90:90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}); \draw[black!40] (\b,-\Ry) arc (-90:90:{\Rx} and {\Ry}); \draw[<->] (\a,-1.2*\Ry) -- (\b,-1.2*\Ry) node[midway,fill=white,inner sep=1] {$L$}; \node[above] at (\a,\Ry) {$V_a$}; \node[above] at (\b,\Ry) {$V_b$}; \node[left=6] at (0,-\Ry) {$A$}; \node[below=5,right=13,Ecol] at (\L,\Ry) {$\vb{E}$}; \end{tikzpicture} \end{document}
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