Re: effective masses in silicon

[Allen Miller <amiller@SUHEP.PHY.SYR.EDU>]

The value of 1.06 for the effective mass of electrons in silicon (given in
the table in the book by Kittel and Kroemer) is incorrect. The solid-state
physics book by Kittel, for example, correctly gives the longitudinal
effective mass as 0.92 and the tranverse effective mass as 0.19. (All
values are given in units of the electron mass.)

Allen Miller,
Physics
Syracuse University


On Mon, 17 May 1999, Daniel Schroeder wrote:

> Is there a semiconductor expert out there?  I'm wondering what numbers
> to use for the density-of-states effective masses of electrons and
> holes in silicon.  Kittel and Kroemer (chapter 13) give 1.06 and 0.58
> times the bare electron mass for electrons and holes, respectively.
> But my local solid-state physicist says 1.06 is way too high, referring
> me to the book by Sze, which says the d-of-s effective mass is the
> geometric mean of the effective masses in the three directions,
> which it gives as .98, .19, and .19, respectively.  The geometric
> mean would then be only .33.  (For holes there's hardly any
> discrepancy.)  Can anyone tell me why there might be such a
> discrepancy, and which number I should use, say, in computing the
> chemical potential of pure silicon at room temperature?
>
> With many thanks,
>
> Dan Schroeder
> Weber State University
> dschroeder@cc.weber.edu