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In physics
Physics

Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
, a charge carrier denotes a free (mobile, unbound) particle carrying an electric charge
Electric charge

Electric charge is a fundamental conserved property of some subatomic particles, which determines their electromagnetic interaction. Electrically charged matter is influenced by, and produces, electromagnetic fields....
. Examples are electron
Electron

The electron is a subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge. It has elementary particle and is believed to be a point particle....
s and ion
Ion

An ion is an atom or molecule which has lost or gained one or more electrons, giving it a positive or negative electrical charge. According to the Bohr_model this will be from or in the outer shield 'n'....
s.

In ionic solutions, the charge carriers are the dissolved cations and anions. Similarly, cations and anions of the dissociated liquid serve as charge carriers in liquids and melted ionic solids (see eg. the Hall-Heroult process
Hall-Héroult process

The Hall-H?roult process is the major industrial process for the production of aluminium. It involves dissolving alumina in molten cryolite, and electrolysing the solution to obtain pure aluminium metal....
 for an example of electrolysis of a melt).

In plasma
Plasma (physics)

In physics and chemistry, plasma is a partially ionized gas, in which a certain proportion of electrons are free rather than being bound to an atom or molecule....
, such as an electric arc
Electric arc

An electric arc is an electrical breakdown of a gas which produces an ongoing Plasma Electrostatic discharge, resulting from a current flowing through normally Electrical conductance media such as air....
, the electrons and cations of ionized gas and vaporized material of electrodes act as charge carriers.






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In physics
Physics

Physics is the natural science which examines basic concepts such as energy, force, and spacetime and all that derives from these, such as mass, charge, matter and its Motion ....
, a charge carrier denotes a free (mobile, unbound) particle carrying an electric charge
Electric charge

Electric charge is a fundamental conserved property of some subatomic particles, which determines their electromagnetic interaction. Electrically charged matter is influenced by, and produces, electromagnetic fields....
. Examples are electron
Electron

The electron is a subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge. It has elementary particle and is believed to be a point particle....
s and ion
Ion

An ion is an atom or molecule which has lost or gained one or more electrons, giving it a positive or negative electrical charge. According to the Bohr_model this will be from or in the outer shield 'n'....
s.

In ionic solutions, the charge carriers are the dissolved cations and anions. Similarly, cations and anions of the dissociated liquid serve as charge carriers in liquids and melted ionic solids (see eg. the Hall-Heroult process
Hall-Héroult process

The Hall-H?roult process is the major industrial process for the production of aluminium. It involves dissolving alumina in molten cryolite, and electrolysing the solution to obtain pure aluminium metal....
 for an example of electrolysis of a melt).

In plasma
Plasma (physics)

In physics and chemistry, plasma is a partially ionized gas, in which a certain proportion of electrons are free rather than being bound to an atom or molecule....
, such as an electric arc
Electric arc

An electric arc is an electrical breakdown of a gas which produces an ongoing Plasma Electrostatic discharge, resulting from a current flowing through normally Electrical conductance media such as air....
, the electrons and cations of ionized gas and vaporized material of electrodes act as charge carriers. (The electrode vaporization occurs in vacuum too, but then the arc is not technically occurring in vacuum, but in low-pressure electrode vapors.)

In vacuum
Vacuum

A vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty," but in reality, no volume of space can ever be perfectly empty....
, in an electric arc
Vacuum arc

A vacuum arc can arise when the surfaces of metal electrodes in contact with a good vacuum begin to emit electrons either through heating or via an electric field that is sufficient to cause field emission....
 or in vacuum tube
Vacuum tube

In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , thermionic valve, or just valve is a device used to amplifier, switch, otherwise modify, or create an Electricity signal by controlling the movement of electrons in a low-pressure space....
s free electrons act as charge carriers.

In metal
Metal

In chemistry, a metal is a chemical element whose atoms readily lose electrons to form positive ions , and form metallic bonds between other metal atoms and ionic bonds between nonmetal atoms....
s, the charge carriers are the electrons forming the Fermi gas
Fermi gas

A Fermi gas, or Free electron gas, is a collection of non-interacting fermions. It is the quantum mechanics version of an ideal gas, for the case of fermionic particles....
 in the metal lattice.

In semiconductor physics, two types of charge carriers
Charge carriers in semiconductors

There are two recognized types of charge carriers in semiconductors. One of them is electrons, which carry negative electric charge. It addition, it is convenient to treat the traveling vacancies in the valence-band electron population as the second type of charge carriers, which carry the positive charge....
 are recognized. One of them is electron
Electron

The electron is a subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge. It has elementary particle and is believed to be a point particle....
s. It addition, it is convenient to treat the traveling vacancies in the valence-band electron population (holes
Electron hole

An electron hole is the conceptual and mathematical opposite of an electron, useful in the study of physics and chemistry. The concept describes the lack of an electron....
) as the second type of charge carriers which carry the positive charge.

See also

  • Color charge
    Color charge

    In particle physics, color charge is a property of quarks and gluons which are related to their strong interactions in the context of quantum chromodynamics ....
  • Molecular diffusion