Work Function

In solid-state physics, the work function (sometimes spelled workfunction) is the minimum energy (usually measured in electronvolts) needed to remove an electron from a solid to a point immediately outside the solid surface (or energy needed to move an electron from the Fermi level into vacuum). Here "immediately" means that the final electron position is far from the surface on the atomic scale but still close to the solid on the macroscopic scale. The work function is a characteristic property for any solid phase of a substance with a conduction band (whether empty or partly filled). For a metal, the Fermi level is inside the conduction band, indicating that the band is partly filled. For an insulator, the Fermi level lies within the band gap, indicating an empty conduction band; in this case, the minimum energy to remove an electron is about the sum of half the band gap and the electron affinity.