What is Band structure: Definition and 95 Discussions

In solid-state physics, the electronic band structure (or simply band structure) of a solid describes the range of energy levels that electrons may have within it, as well as the ranges of energy that they may not have (called band gaps or forbidden bands).
Band theory derives these bands and band gaps by examining the allowed quantum mechanical wave functions for an electron in a large, periodic lattice of atoms or molecules. Band theory has been successfully used to explain many physical properties of solids, such as electrical resistivity and optical absorption, and forms the foundation of the understanding of all solid-state devices (transistors, solar cells, etc.).

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  1. G

    Subbands in semiconductor band structure

    i would like to know all the details about the band structure in a semiconductor and in particular what we call : yours sincerly guedman
  2. P

    Understanding Band Theory: The Difference Between Conductors and Insulators

    My question is as follows: if you place an insulator into an applied field, the only thing that will happen is that the potential energy of each band will shift, according to the potential that it is in. Why is this exact same thing not what takes place in conductors? Why do the electrons at the...
  3. S

    The Case of Electronic structure of Liquid Metals

    I have been contemplating for a few days now about how one could think about the electronic structure of Liquid metals. The cases of an isolated atom or that of solid metal crystal are well known and easy to understand. Though, a google search reveals (to me) that nothing much has come out for...
  4. S

    Band structure of cobalt adsorbed graphene

    I have done the computations of band structure of cobalt adsorbed graphene. In 3x3 supercell of cobalt adsorbed (one cobalt atom) graphne, there is opening of band that is gap between conduction and valence band but there is no gap in 4x4 supercell of cobalt adsorbed graphene. I've done this in...
  5. Hyo X

    Ordered lattice necessary for band structure?

    Is it possible for a disordered or amorphous structure to have band structure? I understand derivation of bands from Kronig-Penney model. E.g. does amorphous silicon have a band structure? While amorphous silicon oxide does not have a band structure?
  6. D

    How to analyze band structure and the density of states?

    Hello! I'm having my materialphysics exam in a few days, and looking some of the older exams I saw that there are many times questions about band structure and density of states. More specifically there might be a picture of some band structure plus the density of states, like this. Then...
  7. T

    Band structure and diffraction intensity

    Hello, Is there an established relationship between the diffraction intensity that a sample produces with its band structure? Thanks
  8. V

    A few simple questions about band structure and conduction

    Hi! I'm reading about band structure and conduction in regular crystals and semiconductors, and I've hit a few confusing points my book doesn't explain well enough for me. In one part, they're explaining conduction in a 1D crystal with lattice spacing a (and therefore reciprocal lattice...
  9. A

    What Factors Influence the Band Gap in Band Structures?

    What are the parameters affects the band gap in a band structure?
  10. H

    Band structure and electric field

    Suppose an electron in a crystal(periodic potential) has the Bloch wave function \psi (k_0,x) at t=0. Applying a constant electric field E(at t=0), the electron would still have Bloch-type wave function at any time t with k(t)=-(1/\hbar) eEt+k_0. Now According to this formula for k(t), one can...
  11. K

    Phonon Band Structure Quantum Atempt

    I found a lecture on the internet where a LCAO assumptions are used to calculate the phonon band structure. In this lecture (Here) we can find that the true Hamiltonian: H = \frac{p^2}{2m}+V_0(x) where V_0(x)=V_0(x+a) is replaced with the following aproximate hamiltonian: H\cong \sum_n...
  12. M

    Energy Band structure in Noncrystalline material

    In crystalline material, bands arise due to the interaction of electron waves with periodic potentials. Can anyone please explain the origin of energy bands in non-crystalline material..couldn't find relevant links on Google.
  13. N

    Pauli's Role in Band Structure: Confusion or Clarity?

    "Band structure a result of Pauli"? Professor hopelessly vague or in essence correct? Hello, I'm taking an introductory course on Solid State physics (level: last year undergrad physics) and the professor said one can view the band structure in solids as a result of the Pauli principle...
  14. S

    How to Plot a 2D band structure?

    Dear forum people, I just learned how to get a tight-binding dispersion for graphene: E = +- \sqrt{1+4\cos((\sqrt{3}a/2) k_x)\cos((a/2) k_y)+4\cos^2((a/2) k_y)} But i can not figure out how can I plot that. I want to plot that in the following path: K \rightarrow \Gamma \rightarrow M...
  15. J

    Why is semiconductor band structure expressed in terms of momentum?

    I've been having a very difficult time understanding why band structure is expressed in terms of momentum/crystalline directions. I've included a picture of the band structure of silicon so that you can better understand my question. I think I understand basic crystalline structures and the...
  16. E

    Regions in the electronic band structure

    I'm thinking mainly within the context of the useful semiconductors here (Si, GaAs, etc.)... What does it mean for an electron to be in the L or X valley instead of the Gamma valley? If Gamma is the k = 0 point, then momentum p = 0. Does that mean being in L or X means all the electrons...
  17. T

    Electronic Band Structure, Ionization Energy

    Hi, thanks for reading my questions. I've been reading and reading and reading and reading and I'm trying to understand the difference between conductors, semiconductors, and insulators at an atomic level. When reading about electricity I often find that metals have a "sea" of "free"...
  18. C

    Band structure and fermi surface of copper

    Hi I've been searching on the web for this two topics, band structure and fermi surface, both of copper. I can't find any of them from a free source, I am doing just a report of my class of introduction to solid state and I just have found this two things in articles that must be bought. If...
  19. S

    Fermi level, band structure of solids, and effect on electrical conduction

    how is the relationship between fermi level and band structure of solids can effect electrical conduction properties of a material?
  20. K

    Does metal coating on porous silicon have any effect on band structure?

    Metal nanoparticles (Au, Ag, Al or ...) can coat on porous silicon, the particles can be located inside the pores or on the silicon micro/nano structures. By applying this type of coating is there any change in band structure of porous silicon? As I've measured the band gap has changed.
  21. U

    How oxidation effects band structure of metals?

    Hi everyone, I'm working on random materials which are coincidencely oxides and showing semiconductor behaviour... Some of these are metals and i suddenly realize MOS (which are practically everywhere). I know them, i know how they work and behave still i can't get to understand the effect of...
  22. S

    Gold & band structure at grazing angle

    Hi everybody, I would like to know if someone could explain to me what happens to the refraction index of gold at grazing angle (X-ray applications), and particularly the band structure explanation (if you have it!)... Indeed, I heard that the x-ray telescopes were made of parallel mirrors...
  23. G

    Where are the high symmetry points on a graphene band structure?

    Hi! Is anyone familiar with generating band structures from DFT simulations? I am using graphene, and am trying to plot the electronic structure at the high symmetry points (K, M, and gamma). Grappling to understand this theory, my questions are: 1. Is the location of the high symmetry...
  24. T

    Correlation between electronic band structure of an atomic species

    Hii, I was wondering whether there is any correlation between the energy eigenvalues of a single atom (say He) with the electronic band structure of a collection of He atoms. for example, for He atoms the lowest energy would be the ground state, with 2 electrons. So will the lowest band for a...
  25. R

    Band Structure of Charged Insulator

    Dear all, I have been thinking, if insulators have their valence band filled, then which band does the extra electrons go when it is negatively charged?? If it is the conduction band, then it would become a conductor... Similarly, if it is positively charged, there would be a hold in the...
  26. G

    Can You Decode a Band Structure Plot and Identify Corresponding Atomic Orbitals?

    Hi! I'm new here... I'm going to go right to the point. I know that when you take atoms and get them closer together, the discrete energy levels turn into bands. But when I'm facing a band structure plot, such as this one (band structure of aluminum nitride in wurtzite structure)...
  27. W

    How to determine band structure (E(k)) of a one dimensional crystal?

    Hi! I'm new to the physics forum but I've read a little bit and I'm impressed with the knowledge a lot of people have here. I've tried searching for any topic on my question without any luck. My question is simply what the algorithm is to determine the band structure for a one dimensional...
  28. L

    Why the crystal momentum k in 2D band structure is defined on a torus?

    Hi, Could someone help to explain that why for the 2 D system, like 2 dimensional electronic gas, the crystal momentum k in 2D band structure is defined on a torus? Thanks a lot.:)
  29. M

    Tight Binding calculation of band structure

    Dear all, I want to calculate the band structure of graphene for a unit cell with 8 atoms in the Tight Binding approximation. There is no problem about drawing the band structure for a unit cell with 2 atoms. But by increasing the unit cell size, first brillouin decrease and there is a gap in...
  30. D

    Band structure simulation using Snider program

    Does anyone have any experience using Gregory Snider's 1D Schrodinger/Poisson solver? I'm trying to do some simulations of a quantum well my group is studying, and I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if the code is buggy or if I'm just interpreting the results incorrectly. Here's the...
  31. M

    How to calculate the band structure?

    Hi, all, I want to calculate the band structure and there is example such like that: BandLinesScale pi/a %block BandLines # These are comments 1 0.000 0.000 0.000 \Gamma # Begin at Gamma 50 2.000 0.000 0.000 X # 25 points from Gamma to X 20 2.000...
  32. T

    Band structure and fermi liquid

    Hi everyone! I wanted to ask if in your opinion is it right to say that band structure calculations (and hartree fock calculations) could live in a framework of the fermi liquid theory where quasiparticles are one-electron states (which could be or not could be the case)...
  33. B

    COMSOL band structure of photonic crystal waveguide

    Setup: I'm trying to make the band structure for a planar photonic crystal with finite thickness, i.e., a quasi-3D problem. I only want the x-direction band structure. So, I'm using variable floquet periodic BCs for the x-direction boundaries, and 0 degree floquet periodic BCs for the...
  34. S

    Calculating High-Symmetry Point Coordinates in Band Structure Computations

    Hi, In all the tutorials of DFT softwares I have encountered computing of the band structure for different systems by using e.g. L-Gamma-X-(U)Gamma circuits. In the texts I have read I have found about X & Gamma but what are L & (U)-Gamma? I also enountered that they have separated the...
  35. S

    Effect of Effective Mass on Material Band Structure

    Hallo ... I would like to know about the effect of the effective mass on the band structre of the materails..
  36. G

    GaP Band Structure: Find Paper & Reference

    Hi again, first of all i want to thanks the replies to my previous posts. Second... I'm looking for a paper about the GaP band structure. Actually i only need the band structure tu compare it with mine but i need the reference to that paper, can you help me?? sorry for my bad english by the way...
  37. O

    Why do we need Gamma point in Band structure

    First post,a good begin. As far as I know,the band gap is generated from the bragg reflection at the BZ boundary.So I think we just need the special K-point at the surface of 1BZ,and also the band gap(direct or indirect) is at the special K-point on the surface. But it seems not real in most...
  38. M

    Photonic Band Structure Calculation

    I am trying to calculate a photonic crystal’s band structure for a very simply case of a 1-dimentional periodic medium, or rather I am trying to understand the calculations that I am looking at for this situation. The end result of what I would like to do is get some function that I can graph...
  39. H

    Help Needed: Determining Rhodamine B Band Structure Experimentally

    Hi, my name is Hans Lindroth and I have difficulties understanding how to determine the band structure of a chemical substance (in this case rhodamine B) experimentally, given I have the absorption spectrum of it. Is there anybody out there who can help me with this? If you can please help...
  40. L

    Band structure and dispersion relations

    -Let's suppose we have 2 gases ..one is a "Fermi" gas under an Harmonic potential and the other is a "Bose" gas under another Harmonic potential... in both cases (as an approximation) the particles (bosons and electrons are Non-interacting) then we could write the partition functions. \prod...
  41. K

    Band structure of ferromagnetic metal

    for a ferromagnetic metal, the there will be splitting of energy band(one for spin up e- and one for spin down e-) under the influence of external magnetic field. the it is known as exchange splitting. here are my questions 1. what determine the degree of splitting? i guess it depends on the...
  42. Loren Booda

    Electron band structure in a nucleus

    Consider a nucleus with N neutrons and Z protons. Can one justify it alternatively as a nucleus with N + Z protons and N electrons, the latter occupying orbitals either confined to the nucleus or following beta decay according to their electronic potential?
  43. L

    Q:How to interpret band structure?

    Dear all: I've been tortrued by this problem for a long time, please help me as possible as you can. 1. I want to know, after one get a dispersion picture of E(k), how to judge one of those curves stems from, say, px/py/pz sigma/pi (bond?)? That is to say, how to judge the curve's...
  44. D

    Calculation of the band structure of Si

    Please, help me to calculate the band structure of Si using the pseudopotential method. I will appreciate if you send me a simple program of calculation in any programming language very much and will be very grateful for any link or reference. The problem is than I've read the pile of books and...
  45. A

    Experiments to describe the band structure of bulk (solid) materials?

    Experiments to describe the band structure of bulk (solid) materials? I just want to know the name of some of the most used techniques to describe or obtain information of how the band structure of the material is. Not by theorethical calculations, just experiments. For example, let say I...
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