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In solid-state physics, the valence band and conduction band are the bands closest to the Fermi level, and thus determine the electrical conductivity of the solid. In nonmetals, the valence band is the highest range of electron energies in which electrons are normally present at absolute zero temperature, while the conduction band is the lowest range of vacant electronic states.
Based on the energy eigenvalues, conduction band are the high energy states (E>0) while valence bands are the low energy states (E<0). In some materials, for example, in graphene and zigzag graphene quantum dot, there exists the energy states having energy eigenvalues exactly equal to zero (E=0) besides the conduction and valence bands. These ...
The name "valence band" was coined by analogy to chemistry, since in semiconductors (and insulators) the valence band is built out of the valence orbitals. In a metal or semimetal, the Fermi level is inside of one or more allowed bands. In semimetals the bands are usually referred to as "conduction band" or "valence band" depending on whether ...
The conduction band, above the Fermi level, is normally nearly completely empty. Because the valence band is so nearly full, its electrons are not mobile, and cannot flow as electric current. However, if an electron in the valence band acquires enough energy to reach the conduction band as a result of interaction with other electrons, holes ...
The band offsets are determined by two kinds of factors for the interface, the band discontinuities and the built-in potential. These discontinuities are caused by the difference in band gaps of the semiconductors and are distributed between two band discontinuities, the valence-band discontinuity, and the conduction-band discontinuity.
The resulting conduction-band electron (and the electron hole in the valence band) are free to move within the crystal lattice and serve as charge carriers to conduct electric current. It is closely related to the HOMO/LUMO gap in chemistry. If the valence band is completely full and the conduction band is completely empty, then electrons ...
For intrinsic semiconductors (undoped), the valence band is fully filled with electrons, whilst the conduction band is completely empty. The Fermi level is thus located in the middle of the band gap, the same as that of the surface states, and hence there is no charge transfer between the bulk and the surface. As a result no band bending occurs.
For holes, is the number of holes per unit volume in the valence band. To calculate this number for electrons, we start with the idea that the total density of conduction-band electrons, n 0 {\displaystyle n_{0}} , is just adding up the conduction electron density across the different energies in the band, from the bottom of the band E c ...