Donor-state overlap estimate Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
For shallow hydrogenic donor states of radius and random donor number density , the mean spacing is of order . Taking this spacing comparable to gives ; a geometric diameter criterion instead gives . The orbitals have exponentially decaying tails rather than hard boundaries, so there is no exact geometric onset. Appreciable overlap also limits the independent-donor ionisation model; a genuine transport transition needs additional electronic physics.
A sequence of bound-to-bound optical transitions of a hydrogenic donor state or hydrogenic acceptor state, converging on a photoionization threshold . For an initially occupied state, ordinary electric dipole transitions reach states; above the threshold, the final carrier can enter a band continuum.
Impurity band 2026-10-24
An energy band formed when localized impurity levels hybridize. For hydrogenic donor states, a typical donor separation gives an exponentially small hopping integral and hence an exponentially narrow bandwidth when . An idealized half-filled band with two spin states per donor has spin-summed density of states of order per volume; its Pauli paramagnetism is . That expression requires and does not by itself describe localization or strong Coulomb interactions.
For a normalized spatial wavefunction, . Its square root is the root-mean-square radius, which differs from the exponential decay length. A spherical hydrogenic donor state with has , obtained by dividing the radial integrals of and .
The extra electron is bound to an approximately singly charged donor through a dielectric-screened Coulomb attraction. In the isotropic hydrogenic donor state model, replace the vacuum electron mass by and the vacuum permittivity by :
At low temperature, the donor is mainly in its state. Allowed electric-dipole transitions to states have
Assign the three printed lines to . Their independently inferred binding energies are
They are mutually close, giving . The hydrogenic impurity absorption series accumulates at the donor-ionization limit. Above about , absorption can place the electron in the conduction-band continuum, explaining the continuous spectrum.
Using the supplied and ,
The corresponding effective radius is
These are the parameters inferred from the printed lines within the stipulated scalar model, rather than substituted tabulated material constants. Real impurity spectra can depart from a single hydrogenic ladder through anisotropy and short-distance impurity effects.[ref]
A substitutional group-V atom such as phosphorus has one more valence electron than germanium and acts as a donor impurity, giving an n-type semiconductor. Approximate its outer electron by a hydrogenic donor state with screened Coulomb attraction and effective mass . The ionization energy is the positive binding-energy magnitude
Its effective Bohr radius of a hydrogenic donor is about , much larger than an atomic core, consistent with a shallow extended bound state.
At , , while the mean three-dimensional classical translational kinetic energy is . Both exceed the donor binding energy, so substantial thermal ionization is expected, unlike excitation across the much larger host band gap. A precise ionized fraction also depends on the chemical potential, dopant density and donor charge-state degeneracy; comparing two energy scales alone does not prove complete ionization at arbitrary concentration.
A substitutional phosphorus atom supplies one more valence electron than the silicon atom it replaces. In the shallow hydrogenic donor state model, the remaining positive impurity attracts that extra electron through the screened Coulomb potential
Rescaling the hydrogen atom binding energy by the effective mass and dielectric screening gives the ionization energy
The donor level lies at ; its binding magnitude is positive. The associated effective Bohr radius of a hydrogenic donor is , consistent with a shallow state extended over several lattice spacings.
At , , approximately times this binding energy. Dilute donors are consequently expected to be largely ionized, rather than frozen out. The actual ionized fraction also depends on the chemical potential, available conduction states and donor charge-state degeneracy; comparing to the binding energy alone is not a normalized ionization probability. At sufficiently high temperature, intrinsic electron-hole production can dominate the total carriers even though donors are ionized. Band anisotropy and short-range impurity corrections limit the numerical hydrogenic estimate.
In the hydrogenic donor state approximation, the screened Coulomb potential energy is and the kinetic term uses . Rescaling the hydrogen atom gives the effective Bohr radius of a hydrogenic donor and the positive binding energy
Therefore
The radius here is the exponential length of the ground-state wavefunction, not its root-mean-square radius. With , radial integration gives and .
For dilute independent donors of number density , a bound spin one-half electron has magnetic moment magnitude , with the Bohr magneton defined using the bare electron mass. Its weak-field Curie law response is
For the orbital response, expand the effective mass Hamiltonian in a uniform magnetic field, using . The spherical ground state has zero orbital angular momentum; the quadratic term raises its energy by
Differentiating this energy twice and using gives
The donor-only magnetic susceptibility cancels when
The negative sign of drops out of the linear magnetic susceptibility. This crossover is far below , consistent with donor binding. It assumes sufficiently weak magnetic field, negligible exchange between donors and a thermal scale above any inter-donor splitting; sufficiently dilute donors can satisfy those assumptions. The background diamagnetism from part (b) is excluded from this cancellation.
A hydrogenic donor state has an exponentially decaying envelope . Neighbouring donors at typical separation therefore have exponentially small orbital overlap. The corresponding hopping integral is of order , apart from algebraic factors and factors from the number of neighbours. Hybridizing many such localized states produces an impurity band with a bandwidth of the same scale:
The order-one constant absorbs details of the donor spacing and envelope. The exponential dependence expresses quantum tunnelling between weakly overlapping donor orbitals, rather than thermal excitation over the donor binding energy.
With a positive charge magnitude e, the relaxation-time equation for electrons is . Steady drift is opposite the field, , so the positive electron mobility and electrical conductivity are
This is the weak-field Drude model; the mobility is a magnitude, not the signed velocity-to-field ratio.
For an intrinsic nondegenerate semiconductor, . Equal electron and hole masses give and intrinsic chemical potential midway between the band edges. At300K, the exponential is . Using the later supplied mass gives
This is many orders below a typical metal's carrier density. Since , ordinary finite carrier mobilities leave its intrinsic conduction negligible on a metallic scale; the gap alone does not specify an exact conductivity without the mobilities.
Under the explicitly stipulated full donor ionization, and the supplied mobility is . Therefore
The band diagram places the intrinsic chemical potential at midgap and a shallow isolated donor level just below the conduction edge. The doped chemical potential moves upward. Quantitatively, the degeneracy test for a fully ionized light-mass donor gas gives , so a nondegenerate logarithmic chemical-potential formula is inconsistent. The parabolic-band zero-temperature estimate is ; its300K value is about0.241eV. The diagram accordingly shows the doped chemical potential inside the conduction band, not between an isolated donor level and the edge.
The hydrogenic donor state scaling using the supplied hydrogen values is
The binding is much smaller than , indicating a shallow donor on the isolated-state estimate. However, the mean donor spacing is only , well below the orbit radius. The donor-state overlap estimate invalidates an independent isolated-level ionization model at this concentration. Shallow binding supports abundant mobile carriers, but the full ionization versus isolated donor occupation distinction means full ionization cannot be justified solely by comparing binding with temperature while simultaneously retaining isolated levels and a degenerate chemical potential. The conductivity above follows the question's carrier-density assumption; an overlapping impurity/conduction-band description is needed for a self-consistent microscopic account. [ref]
Figure 1.
Donor band reference
. The assumed density is degenerate; the isolated donor line is a reference, not an independent-level model. Source. Details.
For a hydrogenic donor state, replace the bare electron mass by and the Coulomb permittivity by with . Rescaling the Bohr model gives the positive ground-state binding magnitude
The radius is
using the Bohr radius . The supplied positive hydrogen “energy” formula should be interpreted as a binding magnitude; the bound level's energy relative to the conduction-band edge is .
At , , about five times the binding energy. Thus a substantial fraction, ordinarily most of the shallow donors in the dilute nondegenerate regime, will be ionised. An exact fraction also depends on the Fermi level, donor concentration and degeneracies; comparing with alone does not determine it exactly. The large radius explains why a weakly bound donor extends across many unit cells.
An intrinsic semiconductor has negligible electrically active impurity doping, and thermal excitation across its band gap produces equal electron and hole densities . In an extrinsic sample, semiconductor doping supplies donor impurities or acceptor impurities, so one carrier species dominates over a range of temperatures. Doping does not remove the possibility of low-temperature dopant freeze-out or high-temperature intrinsic behavior.
Assume parabolic isotropic band edges, spin degeneracy two, a single valley, thermal equilibrium and nondegenerate carriers. Write for the Fermi level, and measure conduction-band energy by . Counting momentum states gives the density of states per unit volume
The low-occupation Maxwell–Boltzmann statistics gives
The substitution and give the coefficient. Similarly and . Multiplication eliminates , proving the semiconductor mass-action law
Here the supplied effective masses are treated as the masses entering the effective density of states. A detailed multivalley silicon model would require the appropriate valley degeneracy and density-of-states masses consistently; adding an extra factor without changing the stated model would alter the requested expression.
A pentavalent arsenic impurity supplies a weakly bound excess electron. In the hydrogenic donor state approximation, dielectric screening reduces the Coulomb attraction and the band effective mass replaces the free mass. Hence the donor binding energy is
This is the effective-mass estimate, without a material-specific central-cell correction.
For the temperature plot use donor density and no acceptors. The charge neutrality with partial donor ionization model puts and includes the twofold spin degeneracy of an occupied donor:
These equations give three regimes. At low temperature, is negligible and strong dopant freeze-out gives . At intermediate temperature, the donors are almost ionized and intrinsic holes remain rare, so . At high temperature, . Thus the log-density plot against inverse temperature has a steep intrinsic segment on the left, a nearly horizontal extrinsic plateau, and a freeze-out decline on the right; the and factors give slight curvature.
Figure 1.
Carrier freeze-out, extrinsic plateau and intrinsic excitation in the specified donor model
. Original charge-neutral calculation using , constant , the supplied single-valley effective masses and donor degeneracy factor two. Dotted lines show limiting expressions where they apply; the shaded temperature interval uses a stated ten-percent plateau tolerance. Details.
To quantify “approximately constant”, require . At , the specified model gives , and . The full neutrality equations give the ten-percent plateau interval
The lower boundary is set by donor ionization and the upper boundary by intrinsic electron-hole production. The large ratio allows substantial donor ionization even when ; using only would incorrectly exclude much of the plateau. The quoted interval depends on the chosen tolerance and the constant-gap band model, rather than being an exact measured range for arsenic-doped silicon.
The hydrogenic donor state radius is the Bohr radius rescaled by screening and effective mass:
The donor-state overlap estimate compares the mean spacing to this radius. Taking the spacing as gives . Taking it as the orbital diameter gives a factor eight less, . Thus a geometric estimate is roughly –, with its contact convention stated. The exponential tails do not have a sharp overlap boundary, and this estimate should not be identified with a precise metal-insulator transition threshold.
For a hydrogenic donor state, dielectric screening replaces by and the electron mass by the band effective mass. The characteristic orbital radius is therefore
Using gives
A donor-state overlap estimate compares this radius with the mean dopant spacing . Taking yields
There is no sharp geometrical onset: hydrogenic wavefunctions have exponential tails. If “overlap” is defined by neighbouring orbital diameters touching, , the corresponding estimate is , smaller by a factor of eight. These are conventions for the onset of appreciable orbital overlap, not an exact critical density for a metal-insulator transition.