supplementary mechanism of conduction due to holes

diamond cubic structure of si atom

Crystal Structure & Behavior of semiconductor

At temperatures above absolute zero, some electrons are excited out over the band gap into the conduction band. When the electron in pure silicon crosses the gap, it creates a vacancy, known as a hole, in the regular silicon lattice. A hole means actually nothing. But since it can accept an electron to get occupied into it, it is assumed to have a positive charge.
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