Chapter 10 classified a crystal by counting its valence electrons per primitive cell:…

PHYSICS · Subjective · Fermi University Physics · Condensed Matter, Materials & Soft Matter · Free electrons, energy bands and electronic structure · Semiconductor physics and devices

Condensed Matter Physics, Ch Homogeneous semiconductors: counting carriers, doping and mobility

Problem

Chapter 10 classified a crystal by counting its valence electrons per primitive cell: silicon's eight electrons fill exactly four bands, leaving no partly filled band and so no metal. A phosphorus-doped silicon crystal, Nd=1.0×1015 cm−3N_d=1.0\times10^{15}\,\mathrm{cm^{-3}}, does add one extra electron per dopant atom beyond that exact count. Explain, with a numeric comparison, why this doped crystal is still described by this chapter's dilute, hydrogen-like picture rather than by Chapter 10's rule that a partly filled band is a metal, even though an electron really has been added beyond the closed-shell count.

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