nLab semiconductor

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?.

Related concepts

• semi-metal

• solid state physics

References

Textbook accounts:

• Karlheinz Seeger, Semiconductor Physics, Advanced texts in physics, Springer (2004) $[$doi:10.1007/978-3-662-09855-4$]$

• Sheng San Li (ed.), Semiconductor Physical Electronics, Springer (2006) $[$doi:10.1007/0-387-37766-2_4$]$

See also:

• Wikipedia, Semiconductor