Electrons and Holes (ARRL)

M. Hamed · 2013-03-29T07:10:17+00:00

This is from the ARRL handbook 2010 p5.12: "When energy is added to a semiconductor lattice, generally in the form of heat, some electrons are liberated from their bonds and move freely through out the structure. The bond that loses an electron is then unbalanced and t he space that the electron came from is referred to as a hole. Electrons from adjacent bonds can leave their positions and fill the holes, thus creating new holes in the adjacent bonds. Two opposite movements can be said to occur: negatively charged electrons move from bond to bond in on e direction and positively charged holes moves from bond to bond in the opp osite direction. Both of these movements represent forms of electrical curr ent." I personally think this is wrong. The electrons moving from bond to bond an d the holes are the same thing. The two currents should be : 1- The hole/bond electron current moving from bond to bond (closer to the l attice structure) 2- The free electron current caused by high energy electrons that are no lo nger associated with any bond. I'm saying this because my understanding is that holes are not real. A hole is an absence of an electron, and hole movement is really bond electrons m oving.

Mar 29, 2013 20 Replies

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patricia herold 13 years ago

...Jim Thompson

| mens |

| et |

ide quoted text -

I've still got my organic chem tome on the shelf, I reread the first few chapters several years ago... It seemed to make sense... after that it's a zoo of different 'elements'. "Intro to Organic Chem." '76 Streitwieser and Heathcock. (just dug it out)

There's a list of NMR chemical shifts behind the front cover. (I would have had no idea what those were when I took the course :^)

George H.

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Electrons and Holes (ARRL)

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