Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2021/paper-2/a10/a/i/solution

Assume dilute nondegenerate electrons and electron holes, parabolic three-dimensional band edges with the stated scalar band effective masses, spin multiplicity two, one effective valley for each edge, and thermal equilibrium. Take the unchanged host ground state to have unit activity and neglect bound excitons. The effective density of states values are
For a Fermi level between the band edges,
The factors of cancel on multiplication. With , the semiconductor mass-action law is
This density-form equilibrium constant has units . A dimensionless thermodynamic constant uses a specified reference number density , giving . The dot representing the host ground state is not a freely translating gas species requiring a further gas partition function. For an intrinsic semiconductor, charge neutrality gives .

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