How do electrons and holes move through a semiconductor when an electric field is applied?

When an electric field is applied to a semiconductor, both free electrons and holes act as charge carriers that move through the crystal lattice, generating an electric current.12

The movement of these carriers occurs as follows:

• Electrons: Free electrons, which reside in the conduction band, are accelerated by the electric field.12
• Holes: A hole represents an electron vacancy in the valence band. As neighboring electrons shift to fill these vacancies, the position of the vacancy moves through the crystal. This process is treated as the motion of a fictitious, positively charged particle.12
• Direction: Under the influence of the electric field, electrons and holes move in opposite directions.3
• Mobility: These carriers move with a specific drift velocity, which is determined by the material's mobility. Electrons and holes typically possess different mobilities, meaning they move at different velocities under the same electric field strength.12