Week2

EE211
Spring 2022

EE211C Introduction to Physical Electronics

Lecture 2 – Crystal Structure of Solids
Discussion (Chapter 1)

Shinhyun Choi
School of Electrical Engineering
 Topics

☐ What are semiconductor materials?

☐ Describe 3 classifications of solids?

☐ What is a unit cell? How is it different from primitive cell?

☐ Describe 3 simple crystal structures

 Why is this important?

 Calculate volume and surface density of atoms

☐ Describe the diamond crystal structure

 What’s the most famous diamond crystal?

 What are “defects”, “impurities”?

SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022

 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

SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022

 Match the right types of solids

Single-Crystalline
(typically what we refer
to as a semiconductor)

Amorphous

Poly-crystalline
(Grains)

SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022

 Unit cell vs. primitive cell

Basis vector

SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022

 What should be p, q, r?

𝒓𝒓 = 𝒑𝒑𝒂𝒂 + 𝒒𝒒𝒃𝒃 + 𝒓𝒓𝒄𝒄

𝒓𝒓

c
b

𝒂𝒂, 𝒃𝒃, 𝒄𝒄 : primitive vectors. p, q, r : integers

SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022

 Topics

☑ What are semiconductor materials?

☑ Describe 3 classifications of solids?

☑ What is a unit cell? How is it different from primitive cell?

☐ Describe 3 simple crystal structures

 Why is this important?

 Calculate volume and surface density of atoms

☐ Describe the diamond crystal structure

 What’s the most famous diamond crystal?

 What are “defects”, “impurities”?

SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022

 Match the right basic crystal structures

Simple cubic 1 atom per cell

Body-centered cubic 2 atoms per cell

(BCC)

Face-centered cubic 4 atoms per cell

(FCC)

a: lattice constant
SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022
Find the volume density of atoms in a crystal

 The lattice constant of a face-centered cubic

lattice is 4.25 Å. Determine the

(a) effective number of atoms per unit cell

(b) volume density of atoms.

 Hint: Density = # / volume

SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022

 Miller Indices

 Method of labeling distinct planes and

directions within a crystalline lattice

 Procedure for planes

1. Find the intercepts of the plane on the 3
Cartesian coordinates in terms of lattice
1, 3, 2
spacing

2. Take the reciprocals of these numbers

1, 1/3, 1/2  6, 2, 3
and reduce them to the smallest 3
integers having the same ratio

3. Enclose the result in parentheses (hkl) (623)-crystal plane

as the Miller indices for a single plane

What if the plane doesn’t

intercept and is parallel?

SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022

 Match the correct lattice planes

(100) (110) (111)

SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022

Calculate the surface density of atoms on
a particular plane in a crystal.

 Consider the body-centered cubic structure and

the (110) plane. Assume the atoms can be
represented as hard spheres with the closest
atoms touching each other. Assume the lattice
constant is a1 = 5 Å.
 Hint: Surface density = # / area

SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022

Calculate the surface density of atoms on
a particular plane in a crystal.
 Consider the simple cubic structure and
the (111) plane. Assume the atoms can be
represented as hard spheres with the
closest atoms touching each other. Assume
the lattice constant is a1 = 4.65 Å.
 Hint: Surface density = # / area

SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022

 Curly Brackets

(100) (010) (001)

…. ….

{100} Family

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 Square & Triangular Brackets

 Procedure for “directions in crystals”

– Set up a vector of arbitrary length in the direction of interest (must be a crystal direction, i.e., connecting two
crystal points)
– Decompose the vector into its basis vector components in the a, b, and c directions
– Convert the resulting numbers to the lowest possible set of integers by multiplying by an appropriate number
– Directions are notated using square brackets, e.g., [111]

 For cubic crystals

– Directions perpendicular to particular crystal planes can be indexed using the same index as the plane

 Sets of equivalent directions are specified by triangular brackets

– e.g., <100>

SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022

 Summary of Miller Indices

(hkl) Family of equivalent planes

{hkl} Family of equivalent directions

[hkl] Crystal plane

<hkl> Crystal direction

SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022

 Topics

☑ What are semiconductor materials?

☑ Describe 3 classifications of solids?

☑ What is a unit cell? How is it different from primitive cell?

☑ Describe 3 simple crystal structures

 Why is this important?

 Calculate volume and surface density of atoms

☐ Describe the diamond crystal structure

 What’s the most famous diamond crystal?

 What are “defects”, “impurities”?

SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022

 Diamond and Zinc-Blende Structure

 Most important lattices for semiconductor-based electronic and

optoelectronic devices
– Diamond lattice: silicon, germanium, diamond
– Zinc-blende lattice: GaAs, InP, most III-V A lattice structure identical to
the diamond lattice except
that there are two types of
atoms instead of one.
 8 atoms per unit cell

Diamond lattice Zinc-blende lattice

SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022

 Diamond Structure

 There are four tetrahedral structures inside the diamond structure

unit cell

Top
Half

Bottom
Half

(building block)

Can you see how

there 8 atoms?
SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022
 Diamond Structure

 We can construct the diamond structure by overlapping two fcc

𝒂𝒂
lattices translated each other by the vector (𝟏𝟏, 𝟏𝟏, 𝟏𝟏).
𝟒𝟒

Lattice 2

𝒂𝒂
(𝟏𝟏, 𝟏𝟏, 𝟏𝟏)
𝟒𝟒

Lattice 1
Can you see how there 8
SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022
atoms?
Diamond Structure: Covalent Bonding in Si

Diamond lattice structure

Si atomic density: 5 x 1022 cm-3

Tetrahedron bond
 Keywords

Elemental A semiconductor composed of a single species of atom, such as silicon or germanium.

semiconductor
Binary semiconductor A two-element compound semiconductor, such as gallium arsenide (GaAs).

Ternary A three-element compound semiconductor, such as aluminum gallium arsenide (AlGaAs).

semiconductor
Covalent bonding The bonding between atoms in which valence electrons are shared

Diamond lattice The atomic crystal structure of silicon, for example, in which each atom has four nearest neighbors in
a tetrahedral configuration.
Lattice The periodic arrangement of atoms in a crystal.

Miller indices The set of integers used to describe a crystal plane.

Primitive cell The smallest unit cell that can be repeated to form a lattice.

Unit cell A small volume of a crystal that can be used to reproduce the entire crystal.

Zincblende lattice A lattice structure identical to the diamond lattice except that there are two types of atoms instead of
one.

Substrate A semiconductor wafer or other material used as the starting material for further semiconductor
processing, such as epitaxial growth or diffusion
Doping The process of adding specific types of atoms to a semiconductor to favorably alter the electrical
characteristics.

SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022

 Last Exercise

 Draw face-centered-cubic structure

 Shade (110) plane
 If a = 4.25 Å, what is the surface density?

SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022

 Online Resources

 If you are interested in playing with crystal structures interactively,

check out NanoHUB:
– https://nanohub.org/resources/crystalviewer

SH Choi | EE211C | Spring 2022

Any Questions?