SOLID STATE

DEVICE
Farzana Alam
Lecturer
Southeast University
 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter,

(i) You should be able to sketch the atomic arrangement of atoms in the cubic
lattices.
(ii) You should be able to calculate the area and volume density of atoms.
(iii) You should be able to identify the principal crystal directions and lattice
planes in the cubic lattices.
Integrated-Circuit Devices
Planar Process Technology
IC Technology Advancement
Benefit of Transistor Scaling
ample: Microprocessor Evolution
Q: Why study electronic devices?
A: They are the backbone of modern technology
1) Computers.
2) Scientific instruments.
3) Cars and airplanes (sensors and actuators).
4) Homes (radios, ovens, clocks, clothes dryers, etc.).
5) Public bathrooms (Auto-on sinks and toilets).

Q: Why study the physical operation?

A: This is an engineering class. You are studying so that you know how to make better devices
and tools. If you do not understand how a tool works, you cannot make a better tool.
1) Design systems
2) Make new – improved – devices.
3) Be able to keep up with new devices.
Q: What devices will we study?
A:
1) Bulk semiconductors to resistors.
2) P-n junction diodes and Schottky diodes.
3) Field Effect Transistors (FETs) – This is the primary logic transistor!
4) Bipolar junction transistors – This is the primary ‘power’ transistor!

By course end, the students should know:

1) How these devices act. 2) Why these devices act the way they do.
 SEMICONDUCTOR PHYSICS REVIEW
1. Semiconductors form the basis of most modern electronic systems (e.g., Computers,
communication networks, control systems).
2. Understanding the operation and design of semiconductor devices begins with an
understanding of the materials involved.
3. We begin our study of semiconductors with some fundamental physics of how electrons
behave in matter.
4. The ability to control the movement of electrons in solids is the basis of semiconductor
device engineering.
5. In order to understand the electronic properties of these devices, it is necessary to understand
the electronic properties of the materials from which they are made, and how those properties
are affected by impurities (intentional and unintentional), temperature, applied voltage,
device structures, and optical radiation.
6. Since solids are composed of atoms, we start by examining the electronic properties of atoms,
and then extending those results to the solid.
7. In particular, the results for silicon (Si) are emphasized, currently the most commonly used
semiconductors in integrated circuits and semiconductor devices.
 Semiconductor Materials

High Conductivity Low

Conductor/Metal Semiconductor Insulator

Elemental Compound
Group IV of periodic table Combinations of Group III and
Group V Elements
・ Silicon (Si) ・ Binary: GaAs, AlAs,AlP,GaN, GaP, InP etc.
・ Germanium (Ge) ・ Ternary: AlGaAs, InGaAs, InGaP etc.
・ Carbon (C)
III IV V Combinations of Group IV and
Group IV Elements
B C ・ SiC, SiGe etc.
Al Si P
Ga Ge As
In Sb Silicon is the most common material for ICs.
Periodic table 11
What is a Semiconductor?

• Low resistivity => “conductor”

• High resistivity => “insulator”
• Intermediate resistivity => “semiconductor” – conductivity lies between that of conductors
and insulators
– generally crystalline in structure for IC devices
• In recent years, however, non-crystalline semiconductors have become commercially
very important
 SEMICONDUCTOR
The conductivity of semiconductors occupy the area between conductors and insulators. This implies that
the conductivity can range over many orders of magnitude. Further, the conductivity of semiconductors
can be adjusted through a number of means, each related to the physical properties of semiconductors.
Typical methods for adjusting the conductivity of a semiconductor are:
a. Temperature
b. Purity (Doping)
c. Optical excitation
d. Electrical excitation.

In most semiconductor devices, the atoms are arranged in crystals. Again, this is because of the physical
properties of the material. The structures of solid materials are described with three main categories. (This
can and is further subdivided.) These categories are:
e. Amorphous (random arrangement of atoms. EG: Steel) [easy to manufacture and used in solar cells]
f. Poly crystalline (has regions of crystallinity separated by grain boundaries. EG: glass) [easy to
manufacture]
g. Crystalline (Repeating arrangement of atom. EG: salt, diamond)
To understand the distinction between these solid material types, we must first understand the concept of
order. Order can be described as the repetition of identical structures or identical placement of atoms. An
example of this would be an atom that has six nearby atoms, each 5 Å away, arranged in a pattern as such.
Compound Semiconductors
If one where to pick any other atom in the material and find
the same arrangement, then the material would be described
as having order. This order can be either Short Range Order,
SRO, or Long Range Order. Short-range order is typically
on the order of 100 inter atom distances or less, while long
range is over distance greater than 1000 inter atom
distances, with a transitional region in between.

We will now discuss each of the solid material types in turn.

Amorphous solids are such that the atoms that make up the material have some local order,
i.e. SRO, but there is no Long Range Order, LRO. (Materials with no SRO or LRO are
liquids.)

Crystalline solids are such that the atoms have both SRO and LRO.

Polycrystalline solids are such that there are a large number of small crystals ‘pasted’
together to make the larger piece.
 Types of Solids

Amorphous Poly-crystalline Single-crystalline

Have order only within a Have a high degree of order Have a high degree of order
few atomic or molecular over many atomic or molecular ,or regular geometric periodicity,
dimensions. dimensions. throughout the entire volume of
material.

Grain

Grain boundaries tend to Its electrical properties are

degrade the electrical superior to those of a non-single
characteristics. crystal material. 16
For the purposes of this class, crystals, as we have said before, are the most important of these
types of solids. Because of this we need to understand crystals in more detail.
WE now need to introduce some basic concepts:
1) The crystal structure is known as the LATTICE or LATTICE STRUCTURE.
2) The locations of each of the atoms in the lattice are known as the LATTICE POINTS.
3) A UNIT CELL is a volume-enclosing group of atoms that can be used to describe the lattice
by repeated translations (no rotations!). This is further restricted such that the translations of
the cells must fill all of the crystalline volume and cells may not overlap. In this way, the
structure is uniquely defined.
4) A PRIMITIVE CELL is the smallest possible unit cell.

Often primitive cells are not easy to work with and thus we often use slightly larger unit cells to
describe the crystal. There are four of very simple – basic – unit cells that are often seen in
crystalline structures.
 Unit Cell

The structure of a crystal can be seen to be

composed of a repeated element in three
dimensions. This repeated element is known as
the unit cell. It is the building block of the
crystal structure.

18
 Types of Unit Cell

There are two distinct types of unit cell: primitive

and non-primitive. Primitive unit cells contain only
one lattice point, which is made up from the lattice
points at each of the corners. Non-primitive unit cells
contain additional lattice points, either on a face of
the unit cell or within the unit cell, and so have more
than one lattice point per unit cell. 19
Types of Unit Cell

20
 Space Lattices
・ The concern in this lecture will be the single crystal. A representative unit, or group of atoms, is repeated at regular intervals in each
of the three dimensions to form the single crystal.
・ The periodic arrangement of atoms in the crystal is called the lattice.

Primitive and Unit Cell

・ Lattice point: a representation of a particular atomic array by a dot.
・ The simplest means of repeating an atomic array is by translation.
・ Two-dimensional lattice can be translated a distance a1 in one direction and a distance b1 in a second nonco-linear direction.
・ A third nonco-linear translation will produce the three-dimensional lattice.
・ The translation directions need not be perpendicular.
b2
A
a2 b3
B

b4 D a3
b1 b1 C a4
a1 a1
Infinite two-dimensional lattice
Various possible two-dimensional lattice/ unit cell
21
・ We can see that single-crystal lattice is a periodic repetition of a group of atoms. Therefore, we do not need to consider the entire
lattice. We just need to consider a fundamental unit.
・ A unit cell is a small volume of the crystal that can be used to reproduce the entire crystal.

・ A primitive cell is the smallest unit cell that can be repeated to form the lattice.
・ In many cases, it is more convenient to use a unit cell that is not a primitive cell.
・ Unit cells may be chosen that have orthogonal sides, whereas the sides of a primitive
cell may be non-orthogonal.
・ This figure shows a generalized three-dimensional unit cell.

A primitive unit cell

  
・ The relationship between this cell and the lattice can be characterized by three vectorsa ,b andc
.
which need not be perpendicular and which may or may not be equal in length.
   
r pa  qb  sc
where p, q and s are integers.

22
 Basic Crystal Structures

(a) Simple cubic : (b) body-centered cubic (bcc) : (c) face-centered cubic (fcc) :
an atom located at each has an additional atom at the has additional atoms on each
corner. center of the cube. face plane

By knowing the crystal structure of a material and its lattice dimensions, we can determine
several characteristics of the crystal. For example, we can determine the volume density
of atoms.

23
These structures are:
1) Simple Cubic, SC

Here a, b, and c are the BASIS

VECTORS along the edges of the
standard SC cell.
2) Body Center Cubic, BCC

Here the ‘new’ atom is at a/2 + b/2 + c/2

 Face Center Cubic, FCC

Here the ‘new’ atoms are at (a/2 + b/2), (b/2 + c/2), (a/2 + c/2), (a + b/2 + c/2), (a/2 + b + c/2),
(a/2 + b/2 + c).
 Example 1.1:To find the volume density of atoms in a crystal that is a body-centered cubic
with a lattice constant a = 5 Å = 5 x 10-8 cm.

Solution:
A corner atom is shared by eight unit cells which meet at each corner so that each corner atom effectively contributes one-
eighth of its volume to each unit cell. The eight corner atoms then contribute an equivalent of one atom to the unit cell. If we add
the body-centered atom to the corner atoms, each unit cell contains an equivalent of two atoms.

The volume density of atoms is then found as

2atoms
Density  1.6 x10 22 atoms / cm 3
5x10 8 3

Comment :
The volume density of atoms just calculated represents the order of magnitude of density for most materials. The actual
density is a function of the crystal type and crystal structure since the packing density – number of atoms per unit cell- depends
on crystal structure.

27
 Crystal Planes and Miller Indices
Three basic planes that are commonly considered in a cubic crystal are shown below.

(100) (110) (111)

Fig.(a): The plane is parallel to the and axes so the intercepts are given as p=1, q=infinity and s=infinity.
Taking the reciprocal, we obtain the Miller indices as (1,0,0), so the plane is referred to as the (100) plane.
Note: Any plane parallel to the one shown in Fig.(a) and separated by an integral number of lattice constants
is equivalent and is referred to as the (100) plane.
One advantage to taking the reciprocal of the intercepts to obtain the Miller indices is that the use of infinity
is avoided when describing a plane that is parallel to an axis.
28
Now that we have described a few of the simple crystal types, we need to figure out how to describe a
location in the crystal. We could use our basis vectors, a, b and c, but it has been found that this is not the
most advantageous description. For that we turn to MILLER INDICES. Miller Indices define both planes in
the crystal and the direction normal to said plane. As we know, all planes are defined by three points. Thus,
one can pick three Lattice points in the crystal and hence define a plane. From these three points, we can find
an origin that is such that travel from the origin to each lattice point is only along one basis vector and the
distance is an integer multiple of that same basis vector. Thus our points are located at ia, jb and kc, where i, j
and k are integers.
To determine Miller Indices does the following:
1) Determine the proper origin and the associated integers, i, j k.
2) Invert i, j and k. Thus (i,j,k) => (1/i,1/j,1/k). In our picture above we find that (3,5,3) goes to
(1/3,1/5,1/3).
3) Next, one finds the least common multiple of i, j and k and use this to multiple the fractions.
In our picture above that multiple is 15. Thus we find (1/3,1/5,1/3) goes to (5,3,5). This is our
Miller Index.
If one of the integers is negative, it is denoted with a ‘bar’ over the number. Thus (-5,3,5) is
written ( 5,3,5).

Often, multiple planes are equivalent. These are denoted with curly brackets {}. In a SC lattice,
all faces appear to be the same. Thus {1,0,0} (1,0,0), (0,1,0), (0,0,1), ( 1,0,0), (0, 1,0), (0,0, 1).
In addition to the planes, we might also be interested in a vector, i.e. moving in a given direction
for a given distance. In this field, vectors are denoted with square brackets, []. Thus a vector V=
1.5a+1b => [1.5,1,0] or more commonly [3,2,0], since we always want to move from lattice point
to lattice point. Equivalent vectors are given with angle brackets, <>.

Of interest is that the plane given by (x,y,z) has a normal of [x,y,z].

 Crystal Direction
The direction can be expressed as a set of three integers which are the components of a vector in that direction. For example, the
body diagonal in a simple cubic lattice is composed of a vector components 1,1,1. The body diagonal is then described as the [111]
direction.

(110) (111)

(100)

Note: The brackets are used to designate direction as distinct from the parentheses used for the crystal planes.
In the simple cubic lattices, the [hkl] direction is perpendicular to the (hkl) plane. This perpendicularity may not be true in noncubic
lattices.
31
Crystallographic Notation
Diamond Lattice
The diamond lattice is fairly difficult to draw. However, it is very important as it is the typical
lattice found with Si, the leading material used in the semiconductor industry.

A Diamond lattice starts with a FCC and then

adds four additional INTERAL atoms at
locations a/4 + b/4 + c/4, away from each of the
atoms.
Diamond Structure
Silicon and Germanium are two examples of semiconductor materials that have a diamond crystal
structure. A unit cell of the diamond structure is more complicated than the simple cubic structures.

A unit cell of diamond structure

An important characteristic of the diamond lattice is that any atom within the diamond structure will have
four nearest neighboring atoms.

The diamond structure refers to the particular lattice in which all atoms are of the same species such as 34
silicon or germanium.
The Zincblende Structure
The zincblende structure differs from the diamond structure only in that there are two different types of atoms
in the lattice. Compound semiconductors, such gallium arsenide (GaAs) have the zincblende structure.

Note: The atoms in both the diamond and zincblende structures are joined together to form a tetrahedron.

A unit cell of zincblende structure. Ex: GaAs lattice 35

[Link] materials come from different groups in the periodic table, yet share certain
similarities.
[Link] properties of the semiconductor material are related to their atomic characteristics and
change from group to group.
[Link] and designers take advantage of these differences to improve the design and choose
the optimal material for different application.

o Elemental semiconductors consists of column

IV elements only, whereas binary
semiconductors are a combination of III/V
and II VI elements.
o Typical applications of each type
• Elemental- transistors and other
integrated circuits, infrared and nuclear
detectors
• III-V - high speed devices and devices
requiring emission/ absorption of light
• II-VI – fluorescent materials such as
television screen.
 Bonds Between Atoms.

They fall into four main categories.

1) Ionic: NaCl and all

other salts
2) Metallic: Al, Na, Ag, Au,
Fe, etc
3) Covalent: Si, Ge, C, etc
4) Mixed: GaAs,
AlP, etc.
 The first of these types of material is related
Ionic: to the complete transfer of an electron from
one atom to another. Cl for example would
like to have a closed top shell and thus it
takes an electron from the Na to produce a
[Ar] electron cloud. Sodium on the other
hand would like to give up an electron, so to
also have a closed shell, in this case [Ne].
[THESE OUTER SHELL ELECTRONS
ARE KNOW AS VALANCE
ELECTRONS.] Both of these
acceptor/donor processes provide lower
energy states. This means that the two
particles Na+ and Cl- are electrostatically
pulled together or bonded. The electrons in
question, are not shared by the atoms.
Picture wise, this looks like
Metallic:

The second of these comes in two forms. The first

form has only a few valance electrons in the outer
orbital. These outer valance electrons thus tend to
be weakly bound to the atoms and are ‘free’ to
move around. An example of this type would be
Sodium, Na = [Ne]3s1 .
Covalent:
In the covalent bond, two atoms share
one or more valance electrons. In this
way, each atom thinks that it has a
closed outer shell. Because the outer
shell is closed, these materials are
typically insulators – although some
might also be semiconductors. (This in
part depends on the size of the atoms.
The smaller it is, the more likely it is to
be an insulator.) An example of this is
Carbon, C=[He]2s2 2p2 .
Mixed States:
Mixed states are a combination of Covalent
and ionic. An example is GaAs. We see that
Ga, which is column III, has three electrons
in the outer shell while As, which is column
V, has 5. As such the pair has 8 outer shell
electrons, just enough to create a closed
outer shell. Ga, it turns out wants to attract
an additional electron more than As wants
an additional electron. Thus one of the
electrons spends more time near the Ga
atom, making it partially negatively
charged and the As partially positively
charged. (A full electron is not transferred.)
Thus, GaAs has some properties of
covalent bonding and some properties of
ionic bonding. The final structure looks
like:
The Silicon Atom
The Si Crystal
Imperfections and Impurities in Solids
In a real crystal, the lattice is not perfect. It contains imperfections (defects)
and impurities.

Imperfections (defects); that is, the perfect geometric periodicity is disrupted in

some manner. Imperfections tend to alter the electrical properties of a material.

Imperfections in Solids
(i) Lattice Vibrations : due to thermal energy which is a function of temperature.

(ii) Point Defects

Vacancy Interstitial

(a) Vacancy (b) Interstitial 44

(iii) Line Defects Line Dislocation (a) Line dislocation

Effects of defects:
・ Disruption of the normal geometric periodicity of the lattice
and the ideal atomic bonds in the crystal.
・ The change of electrical properties of materials.

Impurities in Solids

Substitutional
Impurity
Interstitial
Impurity

45
 GROWTH of SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS

Success in fabricating very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits /

ultra large scale integrated (ULSI) circuits is a result of pure single-crystal semiconductor
materials.

Presently, Silicon, has concentrations of most impurities of less than 1 part in 10 billion.
To get high purity of semiconductor materials, we need;
(i) Extreme care in the growth processes, Container
(ii) High growth technologies,
Chuck
(iii) Extreme care at each step of the fabrication
processes.
Seed Tube

Crystal
(1) Growth from a Melt Melt
Heater

A common technique for growing single-crystal materials such as Crucible

silicon, is called “Czochralski” method.

52
(2) Epitaxial Growth
Epitaxial growth is a process whereby a thin, single-crystal layer of material is grown on the surface of a single-
crystal substrate.

Epitaxial layer(AlGaAs) Epitaxial layer (Si)

Substrate (GaAs) Substrate (Si)

Heteroepitaxial Growth Homoepitaxial Growth

Epitaxial Growth Technique

(i) Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)

(ii) Liquid Phase Epitaxy (LPE)
(iii) Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE)
(iv) Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE)/ Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Epitaxy (MOCVD)

53
 Summary
・ A few of the most common semiconductor materials were listed. Silicon is the most common
semiconductor material.

・ The properties of semiconductors and other materials are determined to a large extent by the
single-crystal lattice structure. The unit cell is a small volume of the crystal that is used to reproduce
the entire crystal. Three basic unit cells are the simple cubic, body-centered cubic (bcc) and face-
centered cubic (fcc).

・ Silicon has the diamond crystal structure. Atoms are formed in a tetrahedral configuration with four
nearest neighbor atoms. The binary semiconductors have a zincblende lattice, that is basically the
same as the diamond lattice.

・ Miller indices are used to describe planes in a crystal lattice. These planes may be used to describe
the surface of a semiconductor material. The Miller indices are also used to describe directions in a
crystal.

・ Imperfections do exist in semiconductor materials. A few of these imperfections are vacancies,

substitutional impurities, and interstitial impurities. Small amounts of controlled substitutional
impurities can favorably alter semiconductor properties. 56
 Summary (cont.)
・ A brief description of semiconductor growth methods was given. Bulk growth produces the starting
semiconductor material or substrate. Epitaxial growth can be used to control the surface properties of a
semiconductor.

・ Most semiconductor devices are fabricated in the epitaxial layer.

Glossary of Important Terms
Binary semiconductor Epitaxial layer Zincblende Lattice
Ternary semiconductor Ion Implantation

Covalent Bonding Lattice Diamond Lattice

Ion Bonding Miller Indices Substrate

Doping Primitive Cell

Elemental semiconductor Unit Cell

Compound semiconductor 57
Exercise 1 – Crystal Planes and Miller Indices
The vector of this three dimensional crystal is
given as

r  pa  qb  sc
The intercept of the plane correspond to
p 3, q 2 and s 1
The reciprocals of the intercepts is
 1 1 1
 , , 
 3 2 1
Multiply by the lowest common denominator,
6 to obtain (2, 3, 6). The plane is referred
as (236) plane

58
Exercise 2 – Crystal Planes and Miller Indices
Describe the lattice plane shown in Figure 1.7

r  pa  qb  sc
The intercept of the plane correspond to
p 1, q 2 and s 2
The reciprocals of the intercepts is
1 1 1 
 , , 
1 2 2
Multiply by the lowest common denominator,
2 to obtain (2, 1, 1). The plane is referred
as (211) plane

59
Exercise 3 – Crystal Planes and Miller Indices
・ Determine the Miller indices for the planes shown below
The vector of this three dimensional crystal is
given as

r  pa  qb  sc
The intercept of the plane correspond to
p 1, q 3 and s 1
The reciprocals of the intercepts is
1 1 1
 , , 
 1 3 1
Multiply by the lowest common denominator,
3 to obtain (3, 1, 3). The plane is referred
as (313) plane

60
Exercise 4 – Crystal Planes and Miller Indices
・ Determine the Miller indices for the planes shown below
The vector of this three dimensional crystal is
given as

r  pa  qb  sc
The intercept of the plane correspond to
p 4, q 2 and s 4
The reciprocals of the intercepts is
1 1 1
 , , 
 4 2 4
Multiply by the lowest common denominator,
4 to obtain (1, 2, 1). The plane is referred
as (121) plane

61
Exercise 5 – Find the Surface Density at (110) plane
The number of atoms
per lattice plane is
1 4 x 4+1= 2

a1 = 5 x 10-10 m or 5 x 10-8cm

The surface density of atoms is then found as

# of atoms per lattice plane
Surface density =
area of lattice plane
2 2 -14 2
= =  5.66 x 10 atom/cm
 
a1  a1 2 5 x 10  2
-8 2
 
62
 Packing Density
Assume that the atoms are closely packed and that they
can be treated as hard spheres

Volume of atom
Packing Density 
Volume of unit cell

63
 Diagonal
There are two types of diagonal used in the calculation

64
 Make the atom expand

Space filling simple cubic technique will be used

65
 Exercise 6 – Find the packing density for Simple Cube

Simple cubic lattice: a 2r

Unit cell vol a 3 2r  8r 3
3

 4 r 3 
1 atom per cell, so atom vol 1 
 3 

 4 r 3 
 
Volume of atom 3
Packing Density    100% 52.4%
Volume of unit cell 8r 3

66
Exercise 7 – Find the packing density for FCC

Face  centered cubic lattice:

d
d 4r a 2  a  2 2 r
2

  16
3
3
Unit cell vol a  2 2 r 2 r 3
 4 r 3 
4 atom per cell, so atom vol 4  
 3 

 4 r 3 
4   
Volume of atom 3
Packing Density     100% 74%
Volume of unit cell 16 2 r 3
67
Exercise 8 – Find the packing density for BCC

Body  centered cubic lattice

4
d 4r a 3  a  r
3 3
3  4 
Unit cell vol a  r 
 3 
 4 r 3 
2 atom per cell, so atom vol 2  
 3 

 4 r 3 
2   
3
Packing Density   3
 100% 68%
 4r 
 
 3 

68
Exercise 9 – Find the packing density for Diamond CC

The diamond lattice can be

considered to be formed by inter-
penertrating two fcc lattices along
the body diagonal by (1/4)th cube
edge

One sublattices has its origin at point

(0,0,0) and the other at a point
quarter of the way along the body
diagonal (at the point a/4, a/4, a/4)

69
Exercise 9 – Find the packing density for Diamond CC

One sublattices has its

origin at point (0,0,0) and
the other at a point quarter
of the way along the body
diagonal (at the point a/4,
a/4, a/4)

70
Exercise 9 – Find the packing density for Diamond CC

Diamond cubic lattice. The radius of the atom is

determind by considering a corner atom, which
touches with an atom lying along the body diagonal.
This body diagonal lies at a distance 1/4 of the BD
from the corner atom. therefore
1
2r  x length of the Body diagonal
4
8
Body diagonal BD 8r a 3  a  r
3

Crystal Structure of Solids 71

Exercise 9 – Find the packing density for Diamond CC

8
Body diagonal BD 8r a 3  a  r
3
3
3 8r 
Unit cell vol a  
 3
 4 r 3 
8 atom per cell, so atom vol 8  
 3 
 4 r 3 
8 
Volume of atom 3
Packing Density    3
 100% 34%
Volume of unit cell  8r 
 
 3 

72
Summary

73
Exercise 10 – Find the surface density of atoms for (100) plane of face-centered-cubic
structure where a=4.25 A

# of atoms per lattice plane

Surface Density 
area of lattice plane

1
Number of atoms per 100  plane 1  4  2
4
2 2
Surface Density  2 
a 4.25 10 
8 2

1.111015atom/cm 2

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Exercise 11 – Find the surface density of atoms for (110) plane of face-centered-cubic
structure where a=4.25 A

# of atoms per lattice plane

Surface Density 
area of lattice plane

1 1
Number of atoms per 110  plane 2   4  2
2 4
2 2
Surface Density  
 
a  a 2 4.25 10  2
8 2

7.83 1014atom/cm 2

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he Photoelectric Effect
The photoelectric effect is the emission of electrons when electromagnetic radiation, such as light, hits a
material. Electrons emitted in this manner are called photoelectrons. The phenomenon is studied in
condensed matter physics, and solid state and quantum chemistry to draw inferences about the properties of
atoms, molecules and solids. The effect has found use in electronic devices specialized for light detection and
precisely timed electron emission.
What is Fermi Level in Semiconductors?
Fermi level (denoted by EF) is present between the valence and conduction bands. It
is the highest occupied molecular orbital at absolute zero. The charge carriers in this
state have their own quantum states and generally do not interact with each other.
When the temperature rises above absolute zero, these charge carriers will begin to
occupy states above Fermi level.
In a p-type semiconductor, there is an increase in the density of unfilled states. Thus,
accommodating more electrons at the lower energy levels. However, in an n-type
semiconductor, the density of states increases, therefore, accommodating more
electrons at higher energy levels.
Bond Model of Electrons and Holes