Suggested languages for you:

Americas

Europe

Q31P

Expert-verified
Found in: Page 1274

### Fundamentals Of Physics

Book edition 10th Edition
Author(s) David Halliday
Pages 1328 pages
ISBN 9781118230718

# (a) What maximum light wavelength will excite an electron in the valence band of diamond to the conduction band? The energy gap is 5.50 eV. (b) In what part of the electromagnetic spectrum does this wavelength lie?

a) The maximum wavelength of the light that will excite electrons in the valence band of diamond to the conduction band is 226 nm.

b) The wavelength lies ultraviolet region in the electromagnetic spectrum.

See the step by step solution

## Step 1: The given data

Energy gap of diamond,${E}_{g}=5.50 eV$

## Step 2: Understanding the concept of energy gap

The valence and the conduction band are separated by an energy gap. When the electron jumps from the conduction band to the valence band, a photon is released and the energy of the photon is equal to the energy gap between those two bands.

Formula for the wavelength of the released photon is given as-

${\mathbit{E}}{\mathbf{=}}\frac{\mathbf{h}\mathbf{c}}{\mathbf{\lambda }}$

Here, c is the speed of light in vacuum, E is the energy of the photon, ${\mathbit{\lambda }}$ is the wavelength of photon and h is the plank’s constant.

## Step 3: a) Calculation of the maximum wavelength of the light

Using the concept and the given energy gap in equation (i), we can get the value of the maximum wavelength required for the excitation as follows:

${\lambda }_{max}=\frac{hc}{{E}_{g}}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\frac{\left(6.626×{10}^{-34}J.s\right)\left(3×{10}^{-8}m/s\right)}{\left(5.5eV\right)\left(1.6×{10}^{-19}J/eV\right)}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=2.26×{10}^{-7}m\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=226\mathrm{nm}$

Hence, the wavelength of the photo is 226 nm.

## Step 4: b) The wavelength region in the electromagnetic spectrum

Comparing with the electromagnetic spectrum, we can see that the wavelength $\lambda =226\mathrm{nm}$ lies in the ultraviolet region.

Hence, the region of the spectrum is ultraviolet region.