= Interband transition
An <interband transition> moves an <Electron> between distinct <energy bands>. A direct optical transition approximately conserves <crystal momentum> because optical <photon> momentum is small compared with a <reciprocal lattice> vector. A phonon-assisted transition can supply the momentum difference needed near an <indirect band gap>. Transition energies alone do not fix their optical intensities, which also depend on <matrix elements> and occupations.
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