The Effective Density of States in the Conduction and Valence Bands for Arbitrary Band Structures

Abstract A formula is proposed for the effective density of states for materials with an arbitrary band structure. This effective density is chosen such that for nondegenerate statistics the conventional form n = N e e −z where z = (E c ndash; E f )/kT remains valid. The result is applied for some simple cases, including the Kane band for InSb. For parabolic bands, N c → N c . Results for holes are analogous.