Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Insulator and semiconductor



What is the difference between a conductor and semiconductor?
The valence band is filled . Electrons in insulator cannot cross to conduction band as the band gap is too large whereas in semiconductor the electrons can cross over to conduction band with thermal energy as the band gap is small. The conduction is due to electrons and holes in conduction band and valence band respectively.pic taken from hsc.csu.edu.au