By

Dr. Kaustab Ghosh

 Density of states – The number of electron
energy states per unit volume over the energy
interval E – E+dE, are called density of states
and defined as ρ(E)dE, where ρ(E) is the DOS.
 Thus the number of states per unit volume
upto the energy E will be

E
N v ( E )    ( E )dE
0
 Fermi Distribution Function
1
f (E) 
1  exp[( E  EF ) / kT ]
 The Fermi-Dirac distribution applies to fermions or
particles having half-integer spin quantum number
and which must obey Pauli’s exclusion principle.
Exercises
 Now, what happens when T=0?

 Consider two situations (1) E<EF and (2) E>EF

 Again, what happens at T>0 and E=EF

 For metals, the Fermi energy at
T=0 is defined as the energy for
which all energy level below the
conduction band are filled with
electrons while all energy levels
above it are empty.
 Electrons are free to move in the
empty spaces of the conduction
band with only a small electric
field E, leading to high electrical
conductivity.
 At T>0, electrons have a finite
probability to be thermally
excited from below the Fermi
energy level to the energy above
it
 For insulators, Fermi
energy lies at the mid-point
of the large forbidden gap
(6-10 eV).
 At T=0, lower valence band
is filled with electron while
the upper valence band is
empty leading to zero
conductivity.
 At T>0, most of the valence
electrons do not acquire
thermal energy to be
excited from the valence
band to the conduction
band, leading to poor
conductivity.
 For intrinsic semiconductor,
Fermi energy lies at the middle
of the energy gap.
 At T=0, valence band is
completely filled with electron
and conduction band is empty,
leading to zero conductivity.
 At T>0, electrons are thermally
excited from the valence to
conduction band, leaving an
empty state in the valence band
called a hole.
 Thus, with the increase in
temperature, conductivity of
semiconductor increases.
 For doped semiconductor,
the electrical conductivity
can be increased by
adding small quantity of
impurities called dopants.
 For n- type
semiconductor, dopant
atom donate the electrons
to the semiconductor with
donor energy ED just
below the conduction
band.
 The Fermi energy moves
up in energy towards Ec
 For p-type doping, the
dopants accept the
electrons from the
semiconductor lattice
creating an acceptor level
EA just above the valence
band level.
 The missing electron
represents a ‘hole’ within
the valence band.
 Hence, large number of
holes are generated in the
valence band greatly
increasing the electrical
conductivity.