From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Filling of the electronic states in various types of materials at
equilibrium. Here, height is energy while width is the
density of available states for a certain energy in the material listed. The shade follows the
Fermi–Dirac distribution (black: all states filled, white: no state filled). In
metals and
semimetals the
Fermi level EF lies inside at least one band. In
insulators and
semiconductors the Fermi level is inside a
band gap; however, in semiconductors the bands are near enough to the Fermi level to be
thermally populated with electrons or
holes. "intrin." indicates
intrinsic semiconductors.