Home » Posts tagged 'Electron hole'

Tag Archives: Electron hole

Current Carriers and conduction

1. Do the protons flow when current flow?
2. In case of semiconductor do the holes flow?

Animesh asked


Atom 3D Model

In metallic conductors, free electrons are the current carriers, i.e, it is due to the motion of the free electrons that conduction takes place in a metallic conductor. The protons do not move as they are inside the nucleus and bound by strong nuclear forces. It is the electrons of the outermost shell of the atom which are least bound to the atom, flow and cause conduction

In semiconductors the current carriers are free electrons and holes.

What are holes?

Holes are actually vacancies created when an electron is freed from a bond. It is assigned a positive charge. When a potential difference is applied across a semiconductor, the free electrons move towards the positive terminal as in the case of a metal. The bonded electrons also move towards positive terminal from vacancy to vacancy and this causes the holes  t move towards the negative terminal.


%d bloggers like this: