Polaron

Polaron

The object that results when an electron in the conduction band of a crystalline insulator or semiconductor polarizes or otherwise deforms the lattice in its vicinity. The polaron comprises the electron plus its surrounding lattice deformation. (Polarons can also be formed from holes in the valence band.) If the deformation extends over many lattice sites, the polaron is “large,” and the lattice can be treated as a continuum. Charge carriers inducing strongly localized lattice distortions form “small” polarons. See Band theory of solids, Hole states in solids, Semiconductor

McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Physics. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Polaron

 

an electron moving through a crystal together with the lattice distortion caused by the electron. The concept was introduced by the Soviet physicist S. I. Pekar. The polaron is a compound quasiparticle and consists of the electron with its associated phonons. The introduction of the polaron permits certain properties of dielectrics and semiconductors to be explained.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

polaron

[′pō·lə‚rän]

(solid-state physics)

An electron in a crystal lattice together with a cloud of phonons that result from the deformation of the lattice produced by the interaction of the electron with ions or atoms in the lattice.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.