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Similar to a core electron, a valence electron has the ability to absorb or release energy in the form of a photon. An energy gain can trigger the electron to move (jump) to an outer shell; this is known as atomic excitation. Or the electron can even break free from its associated atom's shell; this is ionization to form a positive ion. When an ...
Electron excitation is the transfer of a bound electron to a more energetic, but still bound state. This can be done by photoexcitation (PE), where the electron absorbs a photon and gains all its energy [1] or by collisional excitation (CE), where the electron receives energy from a collision with another, energetic electron. [2]
Atoms can be excited by heat, electricity, or light. The hydrogen atom provides a simple example of this concept.. The ground state of the hydrogen atom has the atom's single electron in the lowest possible orbital (that is, the spherically symmetric "1s" wave function, which, so far, has been demonstrated to have the lowest possible quantum numbers).
In solid-state physics, the valence band and conduction band are the bands closest to the Fermi level, and thus determine the electrical conductivity of the solid. In nonmetals, the valence band is the highest range of electron energies in which electrons are normally present at absolute zero temperature, while the conduction band is the lowest range of vacant electronic states.
Simple electron capture by itself results in a neutral atom, since the loss of the electron in the electron shell is balanced by a loss of positive nuclear charge. However, a positive atomic ion may result from further Auger electron emission. Electron capture is an example of weak interaction, one of the four fundamental forces.
The electron wavefunction spreads in a semiconductor lattice and negligibly interacts with the valence band electrons, so it can be treated in the single particle formalism, by replacing its mass with the effective mass tensor.
When a core electron is removed, leaving a vacancy, an electron from a higher energy level may fall into the vacancy, resulting in a release of energy. For light atoms (Z<12), this energy is most often transferred to a valence electron which is subsequently ejected from the atom. [2] This second ejected electron is called an Auger electron. [3]
In the SRH model, four things can happen involving trap levels: [11] An electron in the conduction band can be trapped in an intragap state. An electron can be emitted into the conduction band from a trap level. A hole in the valence band can be captured by a trap. This is analogous to a filled trap releasing an electron into the valence band.