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The Fermi level does not necessarily correspond to an actual energy level (in an insulator the Fermi level lies in the band gap), nor does it require the existence of a band structure. Nonetheless, the Fermi level is a precisely defined thermodynamic quantity, and differences in Fermi level can be measured simply with a voltmeter.
In the spatial axis the equilibration of Fermi levels produces a space charge region or depletion region of size w. A positive voltage applied to the back contact in (b) raises the Fermi level of electrons E Fn, and decreases the size of the depletion region. Consequently, the capacitance of the junction increases, and the reciprocal square ...
E i: The intrinsic Fermi level may be included in a semiconductor, to show where the Fermi level would have to be for the material to be neutrally doped (i.e., an equal number of mobile electrons and holes). E imp: Impurity energy level. Many defects and dopants add states inside the band gap of a semiconductor or insulator. It can be useful to ...
The surfaces of semiconductors are often depletion regions (or space charge regions) where a built-in electric field due to defects has swept out mobile charge carriers. A reduced carrier density means that the electronic energy band of the majority carriers is bent away from the Fermi level. This band-bending gives rise to a surface potential ...
When the electron dynamics in the bound states just above the Fermi level need to be studied, two-photon excitation in pump-probe setups is used. There, the first photon of low-enough energy is used to excite electrons into unoccupied bands that are still below the energy necessary for photoemission (i.e. between the Fermi and vacuum levels).
Similarly, when a metal is deposited onto a semiconductor (by thermal evaporation, for example), the wavefunction of an electron in the semiconductor must match that of an electron in the metal at the interface. Since the Fermi levels of the two materials must match at the interface, there exists gap states that decay deeper into the semiconductor.
The example in the figure shows the Fermi level in the bulk material beyond the range of the applied field as lying close to the valence band edge. This position for the occupancy level is arranged by introducing impurities into the semiconductor.
In general, electrons will occupy different energy levels following the Fermi-Dirac distribution; for energy levels higher than the Fermi energy Ef, the occupation will be minimal. Electrons in lower levels can be excited into the higher levels through thermal or photoelectric excitations, leaving a positively-charged hole in the band they left.