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Do metals have fermi level? As we know conduction band and valence band are overlaped for a metal. Does it make any sense for metals to have fermi level?

sumita sahu
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  • Excuse me, may i ask, what did confuse you? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_level – Vladimir Aug 16 '22 at 21:30
  • I wonder whether it's appropriate to add the semiconductors tag, since the question is not about semiconductors, and does not mention semiconductors, but is still very relevant to semiconductors. – user253751 Aug 16 '22 at 21:49

2 Answers2

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Why not? The Fermi level can be thought of as being related to the average electron energy. It may or may not lie within a band gap, and electrons may or may not be present at the energy, depending on whether or not there are available states for those electrons to occupy. Since metals lack a band gap at the Fermi level, there are available states for electrons to occupy at the Fermi level, unlike for typical semiconductors.

LetterSized
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Yes.

That's about all I know - but the description of how Schottky diodes work invokes the Fermi level of the metal contact to explain why they work.

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(from Wikipedia Commons)

TimWescott
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