The energy levels of a donor atom in a silicon crystal are given by:
where E
D is the energy of the donor level, m
e is the mass of an electron, m
* is the effective mass of electrons in the crystal,
L is the length of the crystal, ℏℏ is the reduced Planck constant, and n is the quantum number.
The bottom of the conduction band in silicon occurs at the point where the energy is minimum, which is at the wave vector k = 0. The corresponding energy is:
where m
* is the effective mass of electrons in the crystal.
The gap between the donor energy level and the bottom of the conduction band is given by:
E
gap = E
min - E
DSubstituting the given values, we get:
m
* = 0.4 m
e E
D = -13.6 eV (since a phosphorus atom has one extra electron compared to silicon)
L = 1 nm (assuming a typical size for the crystal).
For the minimum energy in the conduction band, k = 0. Therefore:
E
min = 0.
Substituting these values into the expression for E
gap, we get
Therefore, the gap between the donor energy level and the bottom of the conduction band is nearest to 0.045 eV.