Looking at the density of states of electrons at the band edge between the valence and conduction bands in a semiconductor, for an electron in the conduction band, an increase of the electron energy makes more states available for occupation. Alternatively, the density of states is discontinuous for an interval of energy, which means that no states are available for electrons to occupy within the band gap of the material. This condition also means that an electron at the conduction band edge must lose at least the band gap energy of the material in order to transition to another state in the valence band.