Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-condensed-matter-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2022/3/c/ii/solution
Past exam of the condensed matter physics course of the University of Oxford 2022 3 c ii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
The plateau in both source plots is approximately , soThese are graphical estimates, not high-precision fitted material parameters. To extract activation energies consistently with part (a), retain the temperature powers in the effective density of states factors.
On the semiconductor carrier freeze-out tail, put . ThenFor example, the right-hand graph gives roughly at and at . Subtract the known prefactor contribution before interpreting the slope:Thus , to the accuracy of the drawing. Ignoring the weak prefactor gives about , a similar rough estimate.
For the intrinsic branch, useThe left-hand graph gives and , both far above . ThereforeHere . Omitting the prefactor over this wide temperature interval would instead give approximately , so it is not a negligible correction for the band-gap extraction from intrinsic carrier activation. The source graph warrants an approximate narrow band gap, rather than several significant figures.
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