Semiconductor Physics

LECTURE- 07
DATE: 14/12/2020
 Review of Fermi distribution function

The Fermi Distribution Function, also known as

Fermi Function give the probability of energy levels
occupied by Fermions in terms of Fermi Energy,
Temperature and Boltzmann Constant.

Def. 2: Fermi Distribution Function is defined as "

the probability that the energy level E is occupied by
an electron/fermion".
The probability f(E) of an electron occupying a
particular energy level (E) is given by;

here, E is the energy of the electron at a particular state.

f(E) is the Fermi Function or Function of Energy
E f is the Fermi Energy
k is the Boltzmann’s Constant T is the Absolute
Temperature
 At T = O K
 Case: (a) At T = 0K for E < EF
 For energy levels E lying below EF , the term (E−EF ) takes the negative
value, hence, the exponential term becomes minus infinite.

 This value clearly indicates that at T = 0K. The energy levels below
Fermi Energy level Ef are fully occupied by electrons.
Case:(b)
Occupation Probability at T = 0K, E > EF

Above equation clearly indicates that at T = 0K, all

the energy levels above Ef are unoccupied or vacant.
Case: (C)
Occupation Probability at T > 0K and E = EF
At T > 0K for E = EF the argument in the
exponential function becomes zero.
Thus, f(E) = 0.5 implies that, the probability of
occupancy of an electron is 50% at any temperature
above 0K.
Further, for E > EF the
value of Fermi function
f(E) falls off to zero rapidly.
case: (d)
Occupation Probability at very high
temperature
At very high temperature, it is observed that, the
transition between completely filled states and
completely empty states is gradual, rather than
abrupt.
Hence, as temperature increases, an electron may
get energy of the order of kT and go to higher vacant
state.
 Density of States

 Density of states is defined as number of energy states Z ‘ (E) dE

per unit volume in an energy interval dE.
 The Fermi function gives us only the occupation probability of an
energy state by an electron. to know the actual number of
electrons with given energy
 The number of electrons in the system is given by;

….. (1)
 Here N(E)dE = Number of electrons in a system with energy dE.
 Z(E)dE = Number of available energy states/ Density of states.
 f(E) = Fermi Function and defines occupation probability of
given energy states
To find Z ‘(E)dE
the equation for the energy of a particle in 3D
potential well is given by

 …..(2)

 By considering above
 …..(3)
 since the values of nx, ny and nz are restricted to be
positive: only one octant (1.e., 1/8 of the sphere is available.

 ….(4)

Similarly, the number of available states with sphere of radius

(n + dn) is

 …..(5)
 Thus the number of allowed energy states in an energy
range E and E + dE

 ..(6)
 now neglecting the higher power of dn, i.e., dn 2 and dn 3
we get

 ….(7)
 Since from previous E we can have,

……(8)
On differentiating above equation

….(9)
 Substituting the values of n and ndn in equation

………(10)
the number of energy states available for electron
occupancy is

…..(11)
 Now the number of energy states per unit volume with energy
interval dE is

……(12)
The actual number of electrons N(E)dE can be obtained by
multiplying the actual number of available energy states with f(E),
the probability of occupation

 …..(13)
 Carrier Concentration in Metals

The number of electrons per unit volume nc (i.e.,

density of electrons or carrier concentration)is

Thus the above equation is the general expression for

carrier concentration at any temperature in metals.
 Examples

(1) Use the Fermi function to obtain the value of f(E)

for E −EF = 0.01 eV at 200K.
(2) Evaluate the fermi function for an energy kT above
fermi energy.