{"term":{"id":"06589","title":"valence band","longtitle":"IUPAC Gold Book - valence band","doi":"10.1351\/goldbook.V06589","code":"V06589","status":"current","definitions":[{"id":1,"text":"Highest energy continuum of energy levels in a solid that is fully occupied by electrons at \\(0\\ \\rm{K}\\).","notes":{"1":"The valence band is lower in energy than the conduction band and is generally completely full in semiconductors. When heated, electrons from the valence band jump out of the band across the band gap and into the conduction band, making the material conductive. The Fermi level separates the valence band from the conduction band.","2":"In metals the valence band is the conduction band.","3":"Sample characterized by a (unique) sample axis Z with all directions perpendicular to Z being equivalent. In other words, the sample properties are invariant to rotation around Z. Uniaxiality exists in many anisotropic samples and simplifies the interpretation of their spectra considerably."},"links":[{"term":"Fermi level","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/F02341"},{"term":"conduction band","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/C01244"},{"term":"valence","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/V06588"}],"sources":["PAC, 2007, 79, 293. 'Glossary of terms used in photochemistry, 3rd edition (IUPAC Recommendations 2006)' on page 438 (https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1351\/pac200779030293)"]}],"altoutputs":{"html":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/V06589\/html","xml":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/V06589\/xml","plain":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/V06589\/plain"},"citation":"Citation: 'valence band' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351\/goldbook.V06589","license":"The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/) for individual terms.","collection":"If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .","disclaimer":"The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.","accessed":"2026-05-10T04:25:35+00:00"}}