Applied Quantum Mechanics

Chapter 7 Problems and Solutions

LAST NAME

FIRST NAME

Useful constants Speed of light in free space Plancks constant

MKS (SI) c = 2.99792458 10 m s

8 1

h = 6.58211889 ( 26 ) 10 16 eV s h = 1.054571596 ( 82 ) 10
34

J s C kg kg kg
1

Electron charge Electron mass Neutron mass Proton mass Boltzmann constant

e = 1.602176462 ( 63 ) 10

19 31 27 27

m 0 = 9.10938188 ( 72 ) 10 m n = 1.67492716 ( 13 ) 10 m p = 1.67262158 ( 13 ) 10 k B = 1.3806503 ( 24 ) 10 k B = 8.617342 ( 15 ) 10

5

23

JK

eV K
1

Permittivity of free space Permeability of free space Speed of light in free space Avagadros number Bohr radius 4 0 h 2 a B = ---------------m 0e2

0 = 8.8541878 10 0 = 4 10 c = 1 00
7

12

Fm

H m

N A = 6.02214199 ( 79 ) 10 23 m o l 1 a B = 0.52917721 ( 19 ) 1010 m

Inverse fine-structure constant 1 = 137.0359976 ( 50 ) 4 0 hc 1 = ----------------e2

Applied quantum mechanics

PROBLEM 1 (a) Write a computer program to calculate the chemical potential for n non-interacting electrons per unit volume at temperature, T. (b) Calculate the value of the chemical potential for the case when electrons of * 18 3 effective mass m = 0.07 m0 and carrier density n = 1.5 10 c m are at temperature T = 300 K (c) Repeat (b), only now for the case when electrons have effective electron mass * m = 0.50 m 0 . (d) Plot the Fermi-Dirac distribution function for the situations described by (b) and (c). (e) Repeat (b), (c), and (d), only now for the case when temperature T = 77 K . Your answer should include a print out of your computer program and plots. PROBLEM 2 1 1 (a) Show that ------------------------------- = 1 -----------------------------( E ) k B T ( E ) kB T e +1 e +1 (b) A semiconductor consists of a valance band with electron energy dispersion relation EVB = E ( k ) and a conduction band with electron energy dispersion relation such that EC B = E 0 E ( k ) , where E0 is a constant such that the conduction band and valence band are separated by an energy band gap, E g . Show that when particle number is conserved, the chemical potential is in the middle of the band gap with value = E 0 2 and is independent of temperature.

SOLUTIONS Solution 1 (a) and (b) use computer program for Fig. 7.5. (c) and (d)

Solution 2
B 1 e +11 1 1 (a) 1 ------------------------------ = ---------------------------------------- = --------------------------------- = -----------------------------( E ) kB T ( E ) kB T ( E ) kB T ( E ) k B T e +1 e +1 1+e e +1 Because it will be useful for part (b), we modify our notation for the Fermi-Dirac distribution so that

( E ) k T

1 f ( E ) = -----------------------------( E ) kB T e +1 so that f (E ) = 1 f( E ) (b) We are given that the semiconductor valance band has an electron dispersion relation E VB = E ( k ) and a conduction band with dispersion relation such that E C B = E 0 E ( k ) , where E0 is a constant such that the conduction band and valence band are separated by an energy band gap, E g . This means that the conduction and valance bands along with the corresponding density of states will be symmetric around the middle of the band gap energy that occurs at energy E = E 0 2 . One way to visualize this is to assume a simple tight-binding band of s-orbitals in one dimension with lattice spacing L for which E ( k ) = 2t cos ( k L ) .

Applied quantum mechanics

E(k)

E(k) D1 (E0 - E) E CB = E0 - E(k) Eg E VB = E(k) 0 /L D1 (E)

Wave vector, k

Density of states, D(E)

If the density of states for the valence band is D1 ( E ) , then the total density of states is D ( E ) = D 1 ( E ) + D 1 ( E 0 E ) . To calculate the chemical potential we use

n =

E=0

D ( E )f ( E ) d E =

E=0

( D1 ( E ) + D1 ( E 0 E ) )f ( E ) d E

1 where the Fermi-Dirac distribution is f ( E ) = ------------------------------ and we note that this has ( E ) k BT e +1 the property f ( E ) = 1 f ( E ) At temperature T = 0 K the integral for the carrier density can be written
EF

n =

E=0

D 1 (E )d E =

E=0

D 1 ( E ) dE

Now, because particle number is conserved, we can equate the T = 0 K integral with the T 0 K integral. Using our new notation for the Fermi-Dirac distribution, this is written
EF

n =

E=0

D 1 ( E ) d E = D 1 ( E ) ( f ( E ) + f ( E0 E ) ) dE

which requires f( E ) + f( E 0 E ) = 1 f( E ) + ( 1 f( E 0 + E ) ) = 1 f( E ) f( E 0 + E ) = 0 E + + E0 + E = 0 E0 = ---2 This means that the chemical potential is independent of temperature and has a value that is in the middle of the band gap. This is a result of symmetry built into the density of electron and hole states in this exercise. If the density of states is not symmetric (as is usually the case in semiconductors) then the chemical potential is not temperature independent.