ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES

• How are electrical conductance and resistance

characterized?
• What are the physical phenomena that distinguish
conductors, semiconductors, and insulators?
• For metals, how is conductivity affected by
imperfections, T, and deformation?
• For semiconductors, how is conductivity affected
by impurities (doping) and T?
 CONDUCTIVITY (Ω⋅m)-1
• Room T values
METALS CERAMICS
Silver 6.8 x 107 Soda-lime glass 10-10
Copper 6.0 x 107 Concrete 10-9
Iron 1.0 x 107 Aluminum oxide <10-13

SEMICONDUCTORS POLYMERS
Silicon 4 x 10-4 Polystyrene <10-14
Germanium 2 x 100 Polyethylene 10-15-10-17
GaAs 10-6
This explains why Cu electrical
wiring is coated with polymer.
 ELECTRICAL CONDUCTION
• Ohm's Law:
V=IR
voltage drop (volts) resistance (Ohms)
current (amps)
A
(cross e- I
sect.
area) V
L

• Resistivity, ρ and Conductivity, σ:

--geometry-independent forms of Ohm's Law
E: electric V = Iρ resistivity
field L A (Ohm-m)
intensity J: current density
ρL L conductivity I
• Resistance: R = = σ=
A Aσ ρ
J = 1/ρ x E
How can we create electrical conduction?
I. Drift (motion of electrical charge under electrical field)
II. Diffusion (motion of electrical charge by concentration gradient)
III. Temperature gradient
.
.
.
Let’s formulate current density and see what’s in there.
q: electrical charge (Coulomb/charge carrier)
n: charge carrier density
<vx> : average carrier velocity

Jx = -qnµEx
Mobility,
Ex
(cm2/ V⋅s) Electrical field
How far charge carrier travel between scattering events.
How can we create electrical conduction?
Conductivity (Ohm’s Law) volt/cm

(Amp/cm2) (Ω⋅cm)-1

Now I have more than one type of charge carriers.

Charge carriers could be electrons, holes, and ions.
We’ll only focus on electrons and holes.

Bottom line: conductivity is proportional to both

mobility and charge density. And,
you can control them separately.
How can we categorize conductor,
semiconductor,
and insulator?
 Band Theory
One atom with its own electronic configuration.

For example, Carbon 1s22s22p2

What happens if we have many many carbon atoms?

 (empty)

(filled by valence
electrons)
Energy Band Structure
 Energy Band Structure

Conductor (metal) insulator

Semiconductor
 Electrical conduction for metal
• Metals:
-- Thermal energy puts Energy Energy
many electrons into empty
a higher energy state. band empty
GAP
• Energy States: partly band
-- the cases below filled filled

filled states
for metals show valence

filled states
valence
that nearby band band
energy states
are accessible
filled filled
by thermal band band
fluctuations.

(a) (b)
 Electrical conduction
for insulator and semiconductor
• Insulators: • Semiconductors:
--Higher energy states not --Higher energy states
accessible due to gap. separated by a smaller gap.
Energy Energy
empty
band empty
? band
GAP GAP

filled filled
filled states

filled states
valence valence
band band

filled filled
(c) band (d) band
 CONDUCTION IN TERMS OF
ELECTRON AND HOLE MIGRATION
• Concept of electrons and holes:
valence electron hole electron hole
electron Si atom
pair creation pair migration

+ - + -

no applied applied applied

electric field electric field electric field
• Electrical Conductivity given by:
# holes/m3
σ = n e µe + p e µh
hole mobility
# electrons/m3 electron mobility
 INTRINSIC VS EXTRINSIC CONDUCTION
• Intrinsic:
# electrons = # holes (n = p)
--case for pure Si
• Extrinsic:
--n ≠ p
--occurs when impurities are added with a different
# valence electrons than the host (e.g., Si atoms)
• N-type Extrinsic: (n >> p) • P-type Extrinsic: (p >> n)
Phosphorus atom Boron atom
hole
4+ 4+ 4+ 4+ conduction 4+ 4+ 4+ 4+
electron
σ ≈ n e µe 4+ 5+ 4+ 4+ 4+ 3+ 4+ 4+ σ ≈ p e µh
valence
4+ 4+ 4+ 4+ electron 4+ 4+ 4+ 4+
no applied Si atom no applied
electric field electric field
METALS: RESISTIVITY VS T, IMPURITIES
• Imperfections increase resistivity
--grain boundaries
These act to scatter Mobility!!!
--dislocations
electrons so that they
--impurity atoms
take a less direct path.
--vacancies

Atom core vibrates more at higher T.

6 Ni • Resistivity
Resistivity, ρ

at%
2
(10-8 Ohm-m)

5 .3 increases with:
+3 N i i
Cu t % t% N --temperature
4 2. 16 a .12 a
Cu
+
u +1 --wt% impurity
3 edC i --%CW
o rm % N
d ef 12 at
2 +1 .
C u
Cu ρ = ρt x ρi x ρd
1 re ”
“Pu
0 -200 -100 0 T (°C)
 PURE SEMICONDUCTORS:
CONDUCTIVITY VS T
• Data for Pure Silicon: −E gap / kT
--σ increases with T σundoped ∝ e
--opposite to metals Energy
empty
band
?
electrical conductivity, σ
GAP
electrons
(Ohm-m)-1 filled can cross

filled states
104 valence gap at
band
103 higher T
102 filled
band
101 Charge density!!!
100 pure material band gap (eV)
(undoped)
Si 1.11
10-1
Ge 0.67
10-2 GaP 2.25
50 100 1000
T(K) CdS 2.40
 DOPED SEMICON: CONDUCTIVITY VS T
• Data for Doped Silicon:
--σ increases with doping
--reason: imperfection sites
lower the activation energy to
produce mobile electrons.
104
electrical conductivity, σ
• Comparison: intrinsic vs
extrinsic conduction...
--extrinsic doping level:
1021/m3 of a n-type donor
impurity (such as P).
--for T < 100K: "freeze-out"
thermal energy insufficient to
excite electrons.

0.0052at%B --for 150K < T < 450K: "extrinsic"

103 --for T >> 450K: "intrinsic"
doped
(Ohm-m)-1

102

concentration (1021/m3)
0.0013at%B
doped
101 undoped
conduction electron 3
100

freeze-out
pure

extrinsic

intrinsic
(undoped)
10-1 2
10-2 1
50 100 1000
T(K)
0
0 2 00 4 00 600 T (K)
 SUMMARY
• Electrical conductivity and resistivity are:
--material parameters.
--geometry independent.
• Electrical resistance is:
--a geometry and material dependent parameter.
• Conductors, semiconductors, and insulators...
--different in whether there are accessible energy
states for conductance electrons.
• For metals, conductivity is increased by
--reducing deformation
--reducing imperfections
--decreasing temperature.
• For pure semiconductors, conductivity is increased by
--increasing temperature
--doping (e.g., adding B to Si (p-type) or P to Si (n-type).