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Re: HOLES AS CARRIERS (was Narges instead of charges?)



On Sat, 6 Oct 2001, Ludwik Kowalski wrote:

But I think that Chuck's issue of "holes as carriers"
is much more interesting. That is real physics of
conductivity (electrical and thermal). I hope there
will be more messages on this.
Ludwik Kowalski

As a student I had some trouble accepting that holes should be treated as
charged particles. Eventually I became comfortable with the idea. One
thing that helped me was that I gave up the idea that the world is "real",
and instead started thinking in terms of mental models. Don't get me
wrong, I still believe that the real world exists. But I don't believe
that we can "see" it except as our mental models. A "hole" in p-type
semiconductor is obviously a useful mental model... but so is the idea
called "electron!"

Here's another way to say it: try spending a few months believing that
"holes" are just as real as electrons, and see where that gets you. Now
spend a few months believing that holes are just models, that they have no
real existence, and feel disgust at the very idea of decending into the
error of accepting holes as genuine. After doing both, analyze your
experiences and see if one of them created misconceptions, learning
barriers, or if one of them was more useful.


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