Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
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.
When a semiconductor is in thermal equilibrium, the distribution function of the electrons at the energy level of E is presented by a Fermi–Dirac distribution function. In this case the Fermi level is defined as the level in which the probability of occupation of electron at that energy is 1 ⁄ 2.
µ is the total chemical potential of electrons, or Fermi level (in semiconductor physics, this quantity is more often denoted E F). The Fermi level of a solid is directly related to the voltage on that solid, as measured with a voltmeter. Conventionally, in band structure plots the Fermi level is taken to be the zero of energy (an arbitrary ...
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 ...
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.
For example, in physics of semiconductor, when the density of states of conduction band is much higher than the doping concentration, the energy gap between conduction band and fermi level could be calculated using Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics.
Here is the effective mass of the electrons in that particular semiconductor, and the quantity is the difference in energy between the conduction band and the Fermi level, which is half the band gap, : = ()