Semiconductor Materials

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 The Silicon Atomic Structure
-
- -
-
- -
- Si -
-
14 -
- -
-
-
Silicon : It’s a Group 4 element which means it has 4 electrons
in outer shell

However, like all other elements it would prefer to have 8

electrons in its outer shell
 Band Gap Energy

Note that the band gap energy, Eg for insulators is ~ 10 eV, while for
metals it is close to 0 eV (1eV=1.6x10-19 J).
 Electrons and Holes
Si and Ge are tetravalent elements – each atom of Si (Ge) has 4 valence electrons in
crystal matrix

T=0 all electrons are bound in For T> 0 thermal fluctuations can
covalent bonds break electrons free creating
electron-hole pairs
no carriers available for conduction. Both can move throughout the lattice
and therefore conduct current.
 Electrons and Holes
For T>0
some electrons in the valence band
receive enough thermal energy to be
excited across the band gap to the
conduction band.
The result is a material with some
electrons in an otherwise empty
conduction band and some unoccupied
states in an otherwise filled valence band.
Electron-hole pairs in a
semiconductor. The bottom of the An empty state in the valence band is
conduction band denotes as Ec and referred to as a hole.
the top of the valence band If the conduction band electron and the
denotes as Ev. hole are created by the excitation of a
valence band electron to the conduction
band, they are called an electron-hole pair
(EHP).
 Silicon Lattice Structure
At 0K, all Free electron
electrons
are tightly
- - - - Vacancy
shared with - Si -- Si -- Si - - Si - left by
neighbours - - - - electron.
 no - - - - - Overall
current - Si -- Si -- -+- Si - -
Si - on
Sicharge
flow - - - - - - silicon is
- - - - - zero 
this “hole”
- Si -- Si - - Si - - Si - - Si - must be
- - - -- - - positive
- - -
- Si -- Si -- Si -+- Si -
- - - -
-
- Si -
- Shares electrons
with 4 neighbouring
Adding heat (even to room atoms  8
temperature) allows some bonds to electrons in outer
break, and electrons can flow shell
 Types of Semiconductors
• Semiconductors can be classified as:
1. Intrinsic Semiconductor
2. Extrinsic Semiconductor
• Extrinsic Semiconductors are further
classified as:
a. n-type Semiconductors
b. p-type Semiconductors

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 Intrinsic Semiconductor
• Semiconductor in
pure form is known as
Intrinsic
Semiconductor
• Ex. Pure Germanium,
Pure Silicon
• At room temp. no of
electrons equal to no.
of holes.

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Intrinsic semiconductor energy band diagram

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 Extrinsic Semiconductor
• When we add an impurity to pure
semiconductor to increase the charge carriers
then it becomes an Extrinsic Semiconductor.

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 Comparison of semiconductors
Intrinsic Semiconductor
• Intrinsic Semiconductor • Extrinsic Semiconductor
1. It is in pure form. 1. It is formed by adding
trivalent or pentavalent
2. Holes and electrons are impurity to a pure
equal. semiconductor.
3. Fermi level lies in 2. No. of holes are more in
between valence and p- type and no. of
electrons are more in n-
conduction Bands. type.
3. Fermi level lies near
valence band in p-type
and near conduction
band in n-type

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 Extrinsic Semiconductor
• Due to poor conduction at room temperature, the
intrinsic semiconductor as such, is not useful in the
electronic devices
• Hence the current conduction capability of the intrinsic
semiconductor should be increased
• This can be achieved by adding a small amount of
impurity to the intrinsic semiconductor, so that it
becomes impure or extrinsic semiconductor
• This process of adding impurity is known as doping
• The amount of impurity added is extremely small, say 1
to 2 atoms of impurity for 106 intrinsic atoms

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 N type semiconductor
• A small amount of pentavalent impurities such as arsenic,
antimony or phosphorous is added to the pure
semiconductor (Ge or Si crystal) to get N type
semiconductor
• Silicon has four valence electrons and phosphorous has five
valence electrons
• Each phosphorus atom forms a covalent bond with
surrounding four silicon atoms
• Thus, four valence electrons of phosphorous atom form
covalent bonds with four valence electrons of individual
silicon atoms and fifth valence electron left free which is
loosely bound to the phosphorous atom
• This loosely bound electron can be easily excited from the
valence band to the conduction band by the application of
electric field or increasing the thermal energy
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 N type semiconductor
• Thus every phosphorus atom contributes one
conduction electron without creating a hole
• Such pentavalent impurities are called donor
impurities
• Thus the addition of pentavalent impurity increases the
number of electrons in the conduction band thereby
increasing the conductivity of N type semiconductor
• As a result of doping, the number of free electrons
exceeds the number of holes in an N-type
semiconductor
• So electrons are called majority carriers are holes are
called minority carriers

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N type semiconductor

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 P type semiconductor
• A small amount of trivalent impurities such as
aluminium or boron is added to the pure
semiconductor (Ge or Si crystal) to get P type
semiconductor
• Silicon has four valence electrons and boron has
three valence electrons
• Thus, three valence electrons of boron atom form
covalent bonds with four surrounding atoms of
silicon leaving one bond incomplete which gives
rise to a hole
• Trivalent impurities such as boron is called
acceptor impurity because it accepts free
electrons in the place of holes
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 P type semiconductor
• Thus the addition of trivalent impurity
introduces a large number of holes in the
valence band and increases the conductivity
of P type semiconductor
• As a result of doping, the number of holes
very much greater than the number of
electrons in a P-type semiconductor
• So holes are called majority carriers are
electron are called minority carriers

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P type semiconductor

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 Photoconductivity
• In the absence of light (i.e., in dark) an intrinsic
semiconductor or a pure single crystal may exhibit
negligible conductivity because the energy of the
incident photon is very small as compared to the
energy gap (hν << Eg) between the top of the valence
band and bottom of the conduction band
• However, when an electromagnetic radiation including
white light is incident, considerable increase in the
electrical conductivity may be observed
• Thus photoconductivity is the increase in the electrical
conductivity of certain insulating crystalline solids, as a
result of exposure to electromagnetic radiation
• The increase in the electrical conductivity is due to the
production of electron-hole pairs by the absorbed
photons
• This phenomenon is used in light meters (in cameras)
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and solid state infrared detectors
 Photoelectric effect
• The photoelectric effect is the emission
of electrons or other free carriers
when light shines on a material.
• Electrons emitted in this manner can be
called photo electrons

Fig: Photoelectric effect

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 Photovoltaic effect
• When an electromagnetic radiation of frequency ν (hν
>> Eg) is incident on a p-n junction electron-hole pairs
are produced
• if the light-generated carriers are prevented from
leaving the solar cell, then the collection of light-
generated carriers causes an increase in the number of
electrons on the n-type side of the p-n junction and a
similar increase in holes in the p-type material.
• This separation of charge creates an electric field at the
junction
• In the absence of external electric field, the light
induced current develops a photo-voltage across the p-
n junction
• This phenomenon is called photovoltaic effect
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