Charge carrier density

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The charge carrier density denotes the number of charge carriers per volume. It is measured in m-3. As any density it can depend on position. It should not be confused with the charge density which is the number of charges per volume at a given energy.

The carrier density is obtained by integrating the charge density over the energy that the charges are allowed to have.

The charge carrier density is a particle density, so integrating it over a volume V gives the number of charge carriers N in that volume

N=\int_V n(\mathbf r) \,\mathrm{d}V.

where

n(\mathbf r) is the position-dependent charge carrier density.

If the density does not depend on position and is instead equal to a constant n0 this equation simplifies to

N=V\cdot n_0.

The charge carrier densities enters equations concerning the electrical conductivity and related phenomena like the thermal conductivity.

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