- #1
phrygian
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I am having a really hard time understanding how the Brillouin zone relates to electron states and have a couple of questions that might help clear it up for me.
For a band structure like this:
https://wiki.fysik.dtu.dk/gpaw/_images/silicon_banddiagram.png
I know that the different symbols on the bottom correspond to different points in the Brillouin zone. Gamma is the center of the Brillouin zone with K=0, so how can an electron with that wavevector have any energy? And why does Gamma appear on the bottom twice?
Do these diagrams mean that when an electrons wavevector increases in magnitude it also must point in a different direction? And what do these states mean, that the electrons are plane waves traveling in one direction?
Thanks a lot for the help, it would really be great to finally understand these concepts.
For a band structure like this:
https://wiki.fysik.dtu.dk/gpaw/_images/silicon_banddiagram.png
I know that the different symbols on the bottom correspond to different points in the Brillouin zone. Gamma is the center of the Brillouin zone with K=0, so how can an electron with that wavevector have any energy? And why does Gamma appear on the bottom twice?
Do these diagrams mean that when an electrons wavevector increases in magnitude it also must point in a different direction? And what do these states mean, that the electrons are plane waves traveling in one direction?
Thanks a lot for the help, it would really be great to finally understand these concepts.
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