What Causes Electrons to Jump into Holes?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Karthikeyan
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Charge Hole
AI Thread Summary
Electrons jump into holes due to the uncertainty principle, which allows for a probability that an electron can change states and occupy a hole. Holes are considered positively charged because they attract electrons, but this characterization is supported by experimental evidence such as the Hall effect in n-type and p-type semiconductors. The movement of electrons into holes results in the effective movement of the holes themselves. This process illustrates the dynamic nature of electron behavior in semiconductors. Understanding these concepts is essential for grasping semiconductor physics.
Karthikeyan
Messages
20
Reaction score
0
Hi all,
What causes the electrons to jump into holes??

Thanks,
Karthikeyan.K
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
Karthikeyan said:
Hi all,
I have a basic doubt. We say holes are positively charged. Is there any experiment which says that holes are positive ?? or is that only because it attracts electrons we call it positively charged?

Thanks...
Karthikeyan.K

Look at the Hall effect in an n-type semiconductor and a p-type semiconductor.

Zz.
 
Because of the uncertainty principle there's always a probability that the electron will change it's state. so if we take a set of base states where each state x corresponds to the electron being at atom x then if atom x has a "hole" (missing an atom) there's always a non zero probability that an electron in the state x-1 will go into state "x" and then the hole will have moved to the left. (the same thing applys to electrons at other atoms)
 
This is from Griffiths' Electrodynamics, 3rd edition, page 352. I am trying to calculate the divergence of the Maxwell stress tensor. The tensor is given as ##T_{ij} =\epsilon_0 (E_iE_j-\frac 1 2 \delta_{ij} E^2)+\frac 1 {\mu_0}(B_iB_j-\frac 1 2 \delta_{ij} B^2)##. To make things easier, I just want to focus on the part with the electrical field, i.e. I want to find the divergence of ##E_{ij}=E_iE_j-\frac 1 2 \delta_{ij}E^2##. In matrix form, this tensor should look like this...
Thread 'Applying the Gauss (1835) formula for force between 2 parallel DC currents'
Please can anyone either:- (1) point me to a derivation of the perpendicular force (Fy) between two very long parallel wires carrying steady currents utilising the formula of Gauss for the force F along the line r between 2 charges? Or alternatively (2) point out where I have gone wrong in my method? I am having problems with calculating the direction and magnitude of the force as expected from modern (Biot-Savart-Maxwell-Lorentz) formula. Here is my method and results so far:- This...
Back
Top