Charge carrier
In physics, a charge carrier is a free particle carrying an electric charge, especially the particles that carry electric currents in electrical conductors. Examples are electrons, ions and holes. In a conducting medium, an electric field can exert force on these free particles, causing a net motion of the particles through the medium; this is what constitutes an electric current. In different conducting media, different particles serve to carry charge:
- In metals, the charge carriers are electrons. One or two of the outer valence electrons from each atom is able to move about freely within the crystal structure of the metal. The free electrons are referred to as conduction electrons, and the cloud of free electrons is called a Fermi gas.
- In ionic solutions, such as salt water, the charge carriers are ions, atoms or molecules that have gained or lost electrons so they are electrically charged. Atoms that have gained electrons so they are negatively charged are called anions, atoms that have lost electrons so they are positively charged are called cations. Cations and anions of the dissociated liquid also serve as charge carriers in melted ionic solids (see e.g. the Hall–Héroult process for an example of electrolysis of a melted ionic solid.
- In a plasma, an electrically charged gas which is found in electric arcs through air, neon signs, and the sun and stars, the electrons and cations of ionized gas act as charge carriers.
- In a vacuum, free electrons can act as charge carriers. These are sometimes called cathode rays. In a vacuum tube, the electrons are released by a heated metal cathode, by a process called thermionic emission.
- In semiconductors, the material used to make electronic components like transistors and integrated circuits (ICs), in addition to electrons, the travelling vacancies in the valence-band electron population, called "holes", act as mobile positive charges and are treated as charge carriers. Electrons and holes are the charge carriers in semiconductors.
It can be seen that in some conductors, such as ionic solutions and plasmas, there are both positive and negative charge carriers, so an electric current in them consists of the two polarities of carrier moving in opposite directions. In other conductors, such as metals, there are only charge carriers of one polarity, so an electric current in them just consists of charge carriers moving in one direction.
