Abstract
In this discussion of semiconductors the band picture will be adopted for the electronic energy states. In a perfect crystalline semiconductor at 0°K the valence electrons completely fill a quasicontinuous band of levels, the valence band, which in turn is separated by an energy gap from the next higher, unoccupied band of levels called the conduction band. The valence electrons are delocalized and belong to the crystal as a whole in the sense that their wave functions possess identical values at equivalent points in every unit cell of the crystal. Since there are no empty energy states accessible at 0°K, the electrons in the filled band cannot receive net energy from an imposed electric field, i.e., a filled band does not contribute to the electrical conductivity. In order for this to occur in either a perfect or imperfect (impure) semiconductor, electrons must be excited into the conduction band, where there are many empty levels, or out of the valence band, leaving empty levels there. In the latter case the net movement of the electrons in the nearly filled valence band is equivalent to that of positive charge carriers, called holes, whose number is equal to that of the empty energy levels.
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© 1975 Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated
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Brebrick, R.F. (1975). The Imperfect Solid—Semiconductors. In: Hannay, N.B. (eds) Defects in Solids. Treatise on Solid State Chemistry. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-0829-4_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-0829-4_5
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