Completely filled conduction band

[Karthikeyan]

Hi all,
From Pauli's principles, electrons cannot move into an already filled state. If i assume that somehow I fill in all the energy states in the conduction band (Population inversion )and then apply an electric field what happens??

Thanks...

 

[ZapperZ]

But look at the conduction BAND itself, which has a continuous empty states by definition. This means that it takes miniscule amount of energy for an electron to occupy an empty state from the filled state, and it does.

Zz.

 

[Karthikeyan]

But look at the conduction BAND itself, which has a continuous empty states by definition. This means that it takes miniscule amount of energy for an electron to occupy an empty state from the filled state, and it does.

Zz.

What about the number of states in the conduction band? Is this finite?? Is it like we can never fill all the energy states in the conduction band??

 

[ZapperZ]

What about the number of states in the conduction band? Is this finite?? Is it like we can never fill all the energy states in the conduction band??

In principle, the total number of states is "infinite". But this isn't something unusual, because you can almost say the same thing about atomic states, since you set the principle quantum number to be "large" to get to the vacuum states. The same with the conduction band, except that it has a continuous states, rather than discrete.

Zz.