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Concept
Fermi level
Summary
The Fermi level of a solid-state body is the thermodynamic work required to add one electron to the body. It is a thermodynamic quantity usually denoted by μ or EF
for brevity. The Fermi level does not include the work required to remove the electron from wherever it came from.
A precise understanding of the Fermi level—how it relates to electronic band structure in determining electronic properties; how it relates to the voltage and flow of charge in an electronic circuit—is essential to an understanding of solid-state physics.
In band structure theory, used in solid state physics to analyze the energy levels in a solid, the Fermi level can be considered to be a hypothetical energy level of an electron, such that at thermodynamic equilibrium this energy level would have a 50% probability of being occupied at any given time.
The position of the Fermi level in relation to the band energy levels is a crucial factor in determining electrical properties.
The Fermi level does not necessarily correspond to an actual energy level (in an insulator the Fermi level lies in the band gap), nor does it require the existence of a band structure.
Nonetheless, the Fermi level is a precisely defined thermodynamic quantity, and differences in Fermi level can be measured simply with a voltmeter.
Sometimes it is said that electric currents are driven by differences in electrostatic potential (Galvani potential), but this is not exactly true.
As a counterexample, multi-material devices such as p–n junctions contain internal electrostatic potential differences at equilibrium, yet without any accompanying net current; if a voltmeter is attached to the junction, one simply measures zero volts.
Clearly, the electrostatic potential is not the only factor influencing the flow of charge in a material—Pauli repulsion, carrier concentration gradients, electromagnetic induction, and thermal effects also play an important role.
In fact, the quantity called voltage as measured in an electronic circuit has a simple relationship to the chemical potential for electrons (Fermi level).
Official source
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