In condensed matter physics and electrochemistry, drift current is the electric current, or movement of charge carriers, which is due to the applied electric field, often stated as the electromotive force over a given distance. When an electric field is applied across a semiconductor material, a current is produced due to flow of charge carriers.
The drift velocity is the average velocity of the charge carriers in the drift current. The drift velocity, and resulting current, is characterized by the mobility; for details, see electron mobility (for solids) or electrical mobility (for a more general discussion).
See drift–diffusion equation for the way that the drift current, diffusion current, and carrier generation and recombination are combined into a single equation.
Read more about Drift Current: Overview, Drift Current in A P-n Junction Diode
Famous quotes containing the words drift and/or current:
“But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“For the purpose of knowledge, one must know how to use that inner current that draws us to a thing, and then the one that, after a time, draws us away from it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)