nLab semiconductor

Redirected from "semi-conductor".
Contents

Contents

Idea

In solid state physics, a semiconductor is a crystalline material for which the electron chemical potential lies in a small gap between a valence band and a conduction band.

This means that a semi-conductor behaves like an insulator unless a little extra energy is supplied to lift the electrons out of the valence bundle into the conduction bundle, in which case it starts behaving like a conductor (or metal).

This “external switching” of electron conductivity in semi-conductors is the basis of transistors? and hence of digital computers?.

References

Textbook accounts:

See also:

Last revised on June 14, 2022 at 09:48:25. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.