EE3310 Homework #1 Summer 2011 Solutions

1. Use Appendix III (attached) of Streetman and Banerjee to answer the following questions: a. Which semiconductor has the lowest density? Silicon b. Which semiconductor has the smallest bandgap energy (Eg)? InSb c. What wavelength corresponds to the bandgap energy of InP? In which part of the spectrum is this wavelength? (Infrared, Visible, Ultraviolet, etc.) 919 nm [near infrared] (use = hc/Eg) d. Name four of the II-VI semiconductors listed in Appendix III along with their lattice constants (a). Any of the Zn, Cd, or Pb compounds 2. Find the fraction of the bcc (body centered cubic) unit cell volume that can possibly be filled by hard spheres. (8/3) (sqrt(3)/4)3 = 0.68 or 68% 3. Label the planes illustrated below. (Miller Notation.) Note: plane (a) is parallel to the z-axis, and plane (b) is parallel to the x-axis. For a reference tutorial, see http://www.doitpoms.ac.uk/tlplib/miller_indices/intro.php (a) (530) (b) (011)

4. Answer the following questions: Answers given a. Find the number of atoms/cm2 on the (100) surface of a Si wafer. (Ans: 6.8e14) b. Find the distance (in nm) between nearest neighbor Ga atoms in GaAs. (Ans: 0.399 nm) 5. How many atoms are found inside the unit cell of: a. A simple cubic lattice. 1 and a (for part d) b. A body centered cubic lattice. 2 and sqrt(3)*a/2 ) c. A face centered cubic lattice. 4 and a/sqrt(2) d. How far apart are the nearest neighbor atoms in each case measured center to center of the atoms. (Put your answer in terms of the lattice constant a.) 6. Can a particle within an infinite potential well have zero energy? Why?

No. Any non-zero wavefunction will produce a non-zero <E>. If the wavefunction were zero, the particle would not exist. 7. The photoelectric effect showed that light can be considered as a stream of particles called photons. In 1924, Louis de Broglie postulated that this waveparticle duality of light extends to other types of particles. The de Broglie hypothesis says that a particle with momentum, p, possesses a characteristic wavelength given by = h / p (where h is Plancks constant). Using the classical relationship between momentum and kinetic energy, answer the following questions: a. What is the de Broglie wavelength of an electron having 4e-17 J of energy? (Write your answer in the units of nm.) Ans: 0.078 nm b. What is that electrons momentum? Ans: 8.53e-24 kg*m/s c. What is the de Broglie wavelength of a neutron (1.67e-27 kg) having 4e-15 J of energy? Ans: 0.000181 nm d. How much energy in eV is 4e-15 J? Ans: 25,000 eV e. What is the wavelength (in meters) of a baseball traveling at 90 mph (assume 145g for the mass of a baseball). Make sure you convert speed to the correct units. 1 mile ~= 1608 m, so the baseballs momentum is p = mv = (0.145)(70)(1608)/3600 = 4.53 [kg*m/s]. Then, deBroglie says lambda = h / p = 6.63e-34 J*s / 4.53 kg*m/s = (6.63e-34)/4.53 m ~= 1.4e-34 m (which is a distance on the order of 1e-15 times the distance between the atoms in the baseball!!) . Therefore, classical physics works fine for baseballs.

8. Streetman and Banerjee Problem 2.10 For the particle in an infinite potential well, the wave function is: Psi(x) = sqrt(2/L) sin(n*pi*x/L) The expectation value of any quantity (or observable), Q, is: <Q> = integral( Psi* Qop Psi )dx, where the integration is over the entire range of the wavefunction. Since the wavefunction is completely confined by the infinite potential well, the integration is performed over the domain of the box. We evaluate for n=1 (the lowest energy level): <x> = (2/L)*integral[0,L](x*sin2(pi*x/L))dx = 0.5L <x2> = (2/L)*integral[0,L](x2*sin2(pi*x/L))dx = 0.28L2 (note: book typo > should be 0.28L2 instead of 0.28L) Then, the standard deviation of x is Delta(x) = sqrt(<x2>-<x>2) = sqrt( 0.28 0.25 )*L = 0.17L Using the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle: Delta(x) * Delta(p) >= hbar / 2 Get Delta(p) >= hbar / 2 / 0.17L ~= 2.94 * hbar/L