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hole current concept

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nandinichakrab 07 Aug 2009 7:59 hole current

hole is a theoritical concept given by the scientists which has no actual existance. so how do we
Joined: 07 Aug 2009 account for the hole current? can something which has no actual existance produce current?
Posts: 8

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ASHUTOSH RANE 07 Aug 2009 8:29 what is hole current

MY DEAR FRIEND HOLE IS JUST ABSENCE OF ELECTRON.

Joined: 07 Aug 2009 THE CURRENT CARRIED BY ELECTRON WHEN IT IS IN VALANCE BAND IS NOTHING BUT HOLE
Posts: 13
Helped: 1 CURRENT .AS IT JUMPS FROM ONE ATOM BOND TO ANOTHER IT SEEMS THAT THE EMPTY PLACE IS
Location: KOZICODE MOVING OPPOSITE THAT CONTRIBUTES FOR HOLE CURRENT AND U CAN REFFER FOR HALL EFFECT
IN DETAIL WHICH GARRANTEES HOLE EXISTANCE .........................

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Infinytus 07 Aug 2009 9:06 what is an hole current

Hi,
Joined: 20 Jul 2009
Posts: 52
Helped: 9
Location: Bangalore,India An electron hole is the conceptual and mathematical opposite of an electron, useful in the study
of physics, chemistry, and electrical engineering. The concept describes the lack of an electron at
a position where one could exist in an atom or atomic lattice.

The electron hole was introduced into calculations for the following two situations:

1)If an electron is excited into a higher state it leaves a hole in its old state. This meaning is used
in Auger electron spectroscopy (and other x-ray techniques), in computational chemistry, and to
explain the low electron-electron scattering-rate in crystals (metals, semiconductors).

2)In crystals, band structure calculations lead to an effective mass for the charge carriers, which
can be negative. Inspired by the Hall effect, Newton's law is used to attach the negative sign
onto the charge.

In solid state physics, a hole is the absence of an electron from the otherwise full valence band. A
full (or nearly full) valence band is present in semiconductors and insulators. The concept of a
hole is essentially a simple way to analyze the electronic transitions within the valence band.

The hole is delocalized and spans an area in the crystal lattice covering many hundreds of unit
cells. Instead of analyzing the movement of an empty state in the valence band as the movement
of billions of separate electrons, physicists propose a single imaginary particle called a "hole". In
an applied electric field, all the electrons move one way, so the hole moves the other way. If a
hole associates itself with a neutral atom, that atom loses an electron and becomes positive. The
physicists therefore say that the hole must have positive charge—in fact, they assign a charge of
+e, precisely the opposite of the electron charge.

Rather big explaination...but I hope u r clear now..

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sreevyas 07 Aug 2009 11:20 who introduced concept of electron holes

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Hi Infinytus, URL: http://www.edaboard.com/ftopic360070.html
Joined: 04 Feb 2009 I confussed with your reply, what is the difference between the hole and positive ion
Posts: 110
Helped: 3
Location: India Regards

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Infinytus 07 Aug 2009 13:53 physical concept of electron-hole picture

A hole is not a physical particle like electron but is assumed to exist in the position where there is
Joined: 20 Jul 2009 a lack of electron. It is complementary to electron and is assumed to have charge opposite to
Posts: 52
Helped: 9 electron i.e positive charge.
Location: Bangalore,India

A positive ion is a single atom minus atleast 1 electron. An ion consists of a nucleus at the core
surrounded by electron cloud. An atom which is neutral becomes a positive ion when atleat 1
electron is removed or knocked out of the atom
So its quite evident that the mass of the positive ion is more than that of a hole.

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akshay_d_2006 07 Aug 2009 15:58 simple concept of electron-hole picture

good xplanation Infinytus

Joined: 31 Jul 2009
Posts: 39
Helped: 7
Location: Mumbai

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nandinichakrab 08 Aug 2009 17:08 concept of current flow

everything is fine Infinytus, but here u hav urself said that hole is just a concept to xplain the
Joined: 07 Aug 2009 movement of electron in valence band.how can a current be associated with a concept?that
Posts: 8
means there is no current called hole current, bcoz holes r hypothetical.

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Infinytus 10 Aug 2009 8:47 hole is really exist semiconductor

Hi
Joined: 20 Jul 2009
Posts: 52
Helped: 9 Any semiconductor(intrinsic/extrinsic) consists of both holes and electrons.
Location: Bangalore,India

How electrons are formed ?

The electrons in a semi-conductor are nothing but the valence electrons of the element forming
the semi-conductor(here silicon). They are loosely attached to their nucleus core and are
therefore allowed to move freely inside.

How holes are formed ?

In an intrinsic semiconductor like silicon at temperatures above absolute zero, there will be some
electrons which are excited across the band gap into the conduction band and which can produce
current. When the electron in pure silicon crosses the gap, it leaves behind an electron vacancy
or "hole" in the regular silicon lattice. In other words, there is a finite probability that an electron
in the lattice will be knocked loose from its position, leaving behind an electron deficiency called a
"hole".

Current in semi-conductor
Under the influence of an external voltage, both the electron and the hole can move across the
material.The current which will flow in an intrinsic semiconductor consists of both electron and
hole current. The free valence electrons form the electron current which flow opposite to the
direction of the voltage applied.

The electrons which have been freed from their lattice positions into the conduction band can hop
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between lattice positions to fill the vacancies left by the freed electrons.
URL: This additional
http://www.edaboard.com/ftopic360070.html
 mechanism is called hole conduction because it is as if the holes are migrating across the material
in the direction opposite to the free electron movement.

As u can see in the image that the direction of the hole current is same as that of the positive
current or the conventional current flow.

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Google 10 Aug 2009 8:47 Ads

AdSense

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Anirban Mitra 13 Aug 2009 15:44 compare electron current and hole current

Here Infinitus has compared the mass of a Hole which is actually nothing but the absence of an
Joined: 13 Aug 2009 Electron. So if hole really has some mass then we can say that with the generation of an Electron
Posts: 3
Location: India Hole pair, mass of a semi-conductor should increase, because new mass is getting generated.
But is this really feasible?? In some places i have seen that hole has mass and charge of the
same magnitude as that of an electron but opposite in sign. But can mass be considered
negative??If it so then during recombination of a electron hole pair, what would happen to the
mass of the material???

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biplabsarkar 09 Oct 2009 19:16 Re: hole current concept

I am also puzzled to think that the mobility of hole is different from that of an electron. If the real
Joined: 09 Oct 2009 entity which is giving the current flow (both electron and hole current) is the electron, then why is
Posts: 1
the mobility of hole different from that of electron.

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saruman1983 11 Oct 2009 0:17 Re: hole current concept

The mobility of holes is less than that of electrons due to more vacancy in the conduction band,
Joined: 12 Oct 2005 where electrons are supposed to 'move', and much less in the valence band , where the holes
Posts: 44
Helped: 4 do. Intuitively, the movement of a hole requires two conditions: 1) the movement of the
Location: Greece corresponding electron to cover up the vacancy in a covalence bond and 2) the existence of that
vacancy in the crystal lattice, while the electron just 'moves around'. The first case (hole
movement) is somewhat less probable and that is expressed mathematically by a lesser mobility
for holes. It would be most helpful to refer to a textbook that covers basic concepts of
semiconductor devices' physics like the classic: Physics of Semiconductor Devices by S.M. Sze
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URL: http://www.edaboard.com/ftopic360070.html
 Added after 1 hours 23 minutes:

Also, here is an interesting/fun video related to the previous discussion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCe1JXaLEwQ

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LvW 11 Oct 2009 10:19 Re: hole current concept

Interesting topic. But I think the situation is even more complicated.

Joined: 07 May 2008 For example, read this excerpt from
Posts: 2156
Helped: 363 Scott Hamilton: An analog electronics companion.
Location: Germany

Quote:
"The drift velocity...... Vd=74*1E-6 m/second, a very small velocity indeed (about 3 h to travel
1m). So currents, or charges, do not flow at the speed of light, but the electromagnetic field
does.....A Mexican wave travels around a stadium very much more rapidly than a person could.
The individual electrons do move at high velocity , but since they are randomly scattered very
frequently, it is only the average drift velocity which matters.....The electrons are only accelerated
by the electric field E for an average about 2.4*1E-14 seconds before suffering a collision, so it is
not surprising that the drift velocity is so low".

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snafflekid 12 Oct 2009 1:09 hole current concept

You could think of it like a partially filled tube of water. The air is the holes and the water
Joined: 10 May 2007 electrons. If you tilt the tube, the water flows. The amount of air flowing up is equal to the
Posts: 193
Helped: 23 amount of water flowing down
Location: USA

If the tube is completely full, i.e. no holes, the water does not flow when the tube is tilted

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