How Do Band Gaps Arise in Periodic Lattices According to Bloch Theory?

[solas99]

why band gaps occur according to bloch theory?

 

[condorino]

Band Gaps do not occur according to a theory. It is the band structure (that has a gap only for semiconductors and insulators) that appears any time atoms are arranged in a periodic fashion to form a lattice. Bloch theory only says that for a definite K value, an electron that is in a band, has to have a precise energy depending on the "shape" of the band. This is similar to what happens when an electron is confined to a potential well, but in the case of a lattice, you have a (infinite) number of wells.

C.