A piece of crystalline silicon slice contains an impurity whose concentration is given by NImpurity = ax where x is alone the direction perpendicular to the surfaces of the Si slice and a is a constant. The Si is held motionless and immersed in a stationary ambient gas.
The two surfaces of the Si slice are in perfect thermal contact with the ambient gas which is held at 300K and which can be considered as an infinite heat sink and heat source. Is the Si slice at thermodynamic equilibrium?
Does it approach several partial equilibrium conditions? Give reasons.