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• we found that electrons are restricted to sets of discrete energy levels (En)
within atoms. Large gaps exist in the energy scale in which no energy
states are available.
• In a similar fashion, electrons in solids are restricted to certain energies
and are not allowed at other energies.
• The basic difference between the case of an electron in a solid and that of
an electron in an isolated atom is that in the solid the electron has a range,
or band, of available energies.
• The discrete energy levels of the isolated atom spread into bands of
energies in the solid because in the solid the wave functions of electrons
in neighboring atoms overlap, and an electron is not necessarily localized
at a particular atom.
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• As in the case of the ionic crystals, no free electrons are available to the
lattice in the covalent diamond structure.
• By this reasoning Ge and Si should also be insulators. However, This is
the picture of an idealized lattice at 0K.
• An electron can be thermally or optically excited out of a covalent bond
and thereby become free to participate in conduction. This is an important
feature of semiconductors.
• Compound semiconductors such as GaAs have mixed bonding, in which
both ionic and covalent bonding forces participate.
• The ionic character of the bonding becomes more important as the atoms
of the compound become further separated in the periodic table, as in the
II-VI compounds.
Coulombic
Potential
well
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