{"term":{"id":"08794","title":"drift velocity","longtitle":"IUPAC Gold Book - drift velocity","doi":"10.1351\/goldbook.08794","code":"08794","status":"current","definitions":[{"id":1,"text":"Average velocity that a charge carrier attains due to an applied electric field.","notes":{"1":"If an electric field is absent, charge carriers move randomly. An applied electric field induces drift (net movement) of charge carriers in a preferred direction. Average net velocity of this movement is called the drift velocity \\(v_{\\rm{d}}\\).","2":"The drift velocity of a charge carrier is directly proportional to the applied electric field strength \\(E\\):  \\[v_{\\rm{d}} = \\mu E\\]  where constant \\(\\mu\\) is the charge carrier mobility in the given material."},"contexts":[],"links":[{"term":"charge carrier","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/\/terms\/view\/08775"},{"term":"charge carrier mobility","url":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/\/terms\/view\/08780"}],"sources":["PAC, 2022, 94, 15. 'Glossary of terms relating to electronic, photonic and magnetic properties of polymers (IUPAC Recommendations 2021)' on page 25 (https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1515\/pac-2020-0501)"]}],"altoutputs":{"html":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/08794\/html","xml":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/08794\/xml","plain":"https:\/\/goldbook.iupac.org\/terms\/view\/08794\/plain"},"citation":"Citation: 'drift velocity' 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.08794","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":"2026-04-18T08:34:34+00:00"}}