Question
Write any two distinguishing features between conductors, semiconductors and insulators on the basis of energy band diagrams.
Solution
Energy band diagram is given below:
Two distinguishing features of conductors, semiconductors and insulators are:
Conductors:
i) The valence band is completely filled and the conduction band can have two possibilities—either it is partially filled with an extremely small energy gap between the valence and conduction bands or it is empty, with the two bands overlapping each other.
ii) On applying an even small electric field, conductors can conduct electricity.
Insulators:
i) For insulators, the energy gap between the conduction and valence bands is very large. Also, the conduction band is practically empty.
ii) When an electric field is applied across such a solid, the electrons find it difficult to acquire such a large amount of energy to reach the conduction band. Thus, the conduction band continues to be empty. That is why no current flows through insulators.
Semiconductors:
i) The energy band structure of semiconductors is similar to that of insulators, but in their case, the size of forbidden energy gap is much smaller than that of the insulators.
ii) When an electric field is applied to a semiconductor, the electrons in the valence band find it comparatively easier to shift to the conduction band. So, the conductivity of semiconductors lies between the conductivity of conductors and insulators.
