Practice question

**Energy bands in semiconductors** consist of valence band filled at 0 K and conduction band empty, gap E_g small ~1 eV (Si 1.1 eV, Ge 0.7 eV), insulators large gap >3 eV (C diamond 5.4 eV), conductors overlapping. Intrinsic semiconductor at 0 K behaves as insulator because no thermal excitation, at T>0 K electrons jump to conduction band leaving holes, conductivity increases with temperature. Si (third orbit) and Ge (fourth orbit) are group IV elements, each with four valence electrons (2s and 2p for Si, 4s and 4p for Ge), forming covalent bonds in their lattice. Substituting values gives 4, which matches expected behaviour for