Semiconductor Materials and their

suitability for solar cell application

18120033 Harshit Kumar, 18120058 Rachit Katiyar,

18120065 Rishabh Sachar, 18120077 Suratna Singh, 18120081 Vaibhav Joshi

Department of Metallurgical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Raipur,

G.E. Road, Raipur, Chhattisgarh.

This article summarizes the outcomes of research work carried out to study Semiconductor
Materials. It includes Crystal Structure, Energy Bands, Fermi Level, Carrier Concentration at
Thermal Equilibrium, Carrier Transport Phenomena, Hall Effect, Recombination Mechanism,
Optical, and Thermal Phenomenon of Semiconductor Materials.

Semiconductors are substances with properties somewhere between conductors and insulators.
ICs (integrated circuits) and electronic discrete components such as diodes and transistors are
made of semiconductors. Common elemental semiconductors are silicon and germanium. Silicon
is well-known of these. Silicon forms most of ICs. Common semiconductor compounds are such
as gallium arsenide or indium antimonide.
Semiconductor devices can display a range of useful properties, such as passing current more
easily in one direction than the other, showing variable resistance, and having sensitivity to light
or heat. Because the electrical properties of a semiconductor material can be modified by doping
and by the application of electrical fields or light, devices made from semiconductors can be
used for amplification, switching, and energy conversion.
A widely known semiconductor is silicon. Electronic components using semiconductors are
called semiconductor devices, including the IC, which is an integrated circuit of transistors.
Semiconductor devices mounted inside many electronics appliances are important electronic
components that support our everyday lives.
The conductivity of silicon is increased by adding a small amount (of the order of 1 in 108) of
pentavalent (antimony, phosphorus, or arsenic) or trivalent (boron, gallium, indium) atoms. This
process is known as doping, and the resulting semiconductors are known as doped or extrinsic
semiconductors. Apart from doping, the conductivity of a semiconductor can be improved by
increasing its temperature. This is contrary to the behavior of a metal, in which conductivity
decreases with an increase in temperature.
Semiconductors became essential for many electronic appliances as well as for social
infrastructure that supports our everyday life.
Semiconductors play an important role in equipment control in a variety of fields, such as
operating air conditioners at a comfortable room temperature, improving automobile safety, laser
treatment in cutting-edge medical care, and many more. Moreover, the advances of
semiconductor technology have driven systems efficiency, miniaturization, and energy savings,
which in turn help to preserve the global environment in addition to achieving safe and
comfortable life and creating a prosperous future.
Semiconductors were discovered all the way back in the 19th century. In the 1940s, transistors
were invented. Radios, which used vacuum tubes until then, were significantly downsized and
became portable.

Types of Semiconductors

1. Intrinsic Semiconductors: Pure semiconductors whose properties are solely based on

the material itself. Here, the number of electrons in the conduction band equals the
number of holes in the valence band. These semiconductors are also known as i-types.

2. Extrinsic Semiconductor: Impure semiconductors that have been "doped" in order to

enhance their conductivity. There are two types of extrinsic semiconductors: p-type and
n-type. A "dopant" atom is added to the lattice in order to draw electrons from the valence
band. This atom is referred to as an acceptor. As more acceptors are added to the lattice,
the number of holes will begin to exceed the number of negative charge carriers,
eventually leading to a p-type (positive type) semiconductor. N-type semiconductors have
a large number of donors, "dopant" atoms that donate electrons to the conduction band.
Crystal Structure

The typical properties of the above-mentioned category of materials are due to their unique
structure which is known as the lattice structure and basically, it consists of a repeated
arrangement of atoms in a particular geometric pattern. There are several different types of
crystal structure such as the Simple Cubic structure, Base Centered Cubic structure, Face
Centered Cubic structure, and Diamond structure.

1. In SC structure the lattice is in the form of a cube having an atom at each of its vertices.
The only material which exists in SC form is Podium.

2. In BCC the atoms are at the vertices of the cube plus one atom at the center of the cube,
hence each atom has 8 neighbors. e.g. Sodium

3. In FCC there are atoms at the corners of the cube as well as the centers of each of the
faces thus giving a figure of 12 atoms in the neighborhood of each atom.
 4. Diamond lattice - the structure of semiconductors is slightly different and the
semiconductor materials such as Silicon and Germanium have a structure known as the
diamond lattice wherein there are four equidistant neighbors of each atom in the form of
a tetrahedron.

Carrier Transport Phenomena

In engineering, physics, and chemistry, the study of transport phenomena concerns the exchange
of mass, energy, charge, momentum, and angular momentum between observed and studied
systems. While it draws from fields as diverse as continuum mechanics and thermodynamics, it
places a heavy emphasis on the commonalities between the topics covered. Mass, momentum,
and heat transport all share a very similar mathematical framework, and the parallels between
them are exploited in the study of transport phenomena to draw deep mathematical connections
that often provide very useful tools in the analysis of one field that is directly derived from the
others.
The fundamental analysis in all three subfields of mass, heat, and momentum transfer is often
grounded in the simple principle that the total sum of the quantities being studied must be
conserved by the system and its environment. Thus, the different phenomena that lead to
transport are each considered individually with the knowledge that the sum of their contributions
must equal zero. This principle is useful for calculating many relevant quantities. For example, in
fluid mechanics, the common use of transport analysis is to determine the velocity profile of a
fluid flowing through a rigid volume.

Transport phenomena are ubiquitous throughout the engineering disciplines. Some of the most
common examples of transport analysis in engineering are seen in the fields of process,
chemical, biological, and mechanical engineering, but the subject is a fundamental component of
the curriculum in all disciplines involved in any way with fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and
mass transfer. It is now considered to be a part of the engineering discipline as much as
thermodynamics, mechanism, and electromagnetism.

Transport phenomena encompass all agents of physical change in the universe. Moreover, they
are considered to be fundamental building blocks that developed the universe, and which is
responsible for the success of all life on earth. However, the scope here is limited to the
relationship of transport phenomena to an artificial engineered system.

Hall Effect

A Hall effect can also occur across a void or hole in a semiconductor or metal plate when current
is injected via contacts that lie on the boundary or edge of the void or hole, and the charge flows
outside the void or hole, in the metal or semiconductor. This Hall effect becomes observable in a
perpendicular applied magnetic field across voltage contacts that lie on the boundary of the void
on either side of a line connecting the current contacts. It exhibits apparent sign reversal in
comparison to the standard "ordinary Hall effect" in the simply connected specimen, and
depends only on the current injected from within the void.

Superposition may also be realized in the Hall effect: first imagine the standard Hall
configuration, a simply connected (void-less) thin rectangular homogeneous Hall plate with
current and voltage contacts on the (external) boundary which develops a Hall voltage in a
perpendicular magnetic field. Next, imagine placing a rectangular void or hole within this
standard Hall configuration, with current and voltage contacts, as mentioned above, on the
interior boundary of the void. For simplicity, the current contacts on the boundary of the void
may be lined up with the current contacts on the exterior boundary in the standard Hall
configuration. In such a configuration, two Hall effects may be realized and observed
simultaneously in the same doubly connected device: A Hall effect on the external boundary that
is proportional to the current injected only via the outer boundary, and an apparently
sign-reversed Hall effect on the interior boundary that is proportional to the current injected only
via the interior boundary. The superposition of multiple Hall effects may be realized by placing
multiple voids within the Hall element, with current and voltage contacts on the boundary of
each void.

Band Theory

According to the band theory, semiconductors will actually act as insulators at absolute zero.
Above this temperature and yet still staying below the melting point of the solid, the metal would
act as a semiconductor. Semiconductors are classified by the fully occupied valence band and
unoccupied conduction band. With the small bandgap in between these two bands, it takes a
certain amount of energy to excite the electrons from the valence to the conduction band. Thus it
follows that the higher the temperature, the more conductive the solid will be.

Band Energy: continuous bands of energy are formed due to the combinations of molecular
orbitals close in energy. Of course, due to the mass amounts of different molecular orbital
mixings, bands of varying energy will form. The difference between these band energies is
known as the bandgap, as indicated in Figure.
The band theory looks at the jump of electrons across the bandgap. In particular, the jump of
electrons from their valence band to their conduction band across their Fermi energy level. This
"jump" dictates the optical and magnetic properties of the solid.

VALENCE BAND
The band of energy where all of the valence electrons reside and are involved in the highest
energy molecular orbital.

CONDUCTION BAND
The band energy where positive or negative mobile charge carriers exist. Negative mobile
charge carriers are simply electrons that had enough energy to escape the valence band and jump
to the conduction band. Here, they move freely throughout the crystal lattice and are directly
involved in the conductivity of semiconductors. Positive mobile charge carriers are also referred
to as holes. Holes refer to the lack of an electron in the conduction band. In other words, a hole
refers to the fact that within the band there is a place where an electron can exist (ie. a negative
mobile charge carrier), and yet the electron ceases to exist at that particular location. Because the
electron has the potential to be there and yet isn't there, it is referred to as a positive mobile
charge carrier.

FERMI LEVEL
This level refers to the highest occupied molecular orbital at absolute zero. It is usually found at
the center between the valence and conduction bands. The particles in this state each have their
own quantum states and generally do not interact with each other. When the temperature begins
to rise above absolute zero, these particles will begin to occupy states above the Fermi level, and
states below the Fermi level become unoccupied.
Optical Effects of Semiconductors

Changes in the index of refraction of semiconductor superlattices due to the electric field are
studied theoretically. A parabolic band effective mass approximation is used for the conduction,
heavy hole, and light hole bands. Excitonic effects are considered for wide barrier superlattices
(or multiple quantum wells) and are found to substantially enhance the electro-optic effect near
the onset of the excitonic absorption.

The optical properties of a semiconductor are determined by factors such as size, shape, surface
and bulk defects, impurities, and crystallinity. The dependence on the size, the parameter that
exerts the greatest influence, arises from changes to the surface-to-volume ratio with size, and
quantum confinement, which modifies the density of states near the band edges. The effect of
NCs size on their optical properties has been demonstrated for a variety of semiconductor
nanocrystals.

In a bulk semiconductor, the absorption of a photon leads to the excitation of an electron from
the valence band to the conduction band. The charge carriers are separated by distances that
encompass several molecules or ions. This separation, along with the high dielectric constant of
the material, makes their binding energy relatively small, leading to the formation of a
Wannier-type exciton that is relatively free to move through the bulk crystal until it is trapped,
annihilated in collision with another exciton, or relaxed by radiative recombination of the
electron and hole.

Thermal Effects of Semiconductors

Thermal phenomena have become very important in a variety of nanostructured semiconductor

devices and materials. The reduced dimensions and large interface densities lead to complex
thermal phenomena which do not occur in bulk materials and larger devices. Successful designs
of high-performance semiconductor devices, including phase-change memory (PCM) and high
electron mobility transistors (HEMT), rely on the accurate thermal characterization of thin-film
materials and improved understanding of nanoscale energy transport physics. This thesis
addresses nanoscale thermal transport problems relevant to three promising electronics
technologies.

● The first part of this work investigates thermal conduction phenomena in phase-change
memory. The preferential grain orientation and mixed-phase distribution lead to a
reduced in-plane thermal conductivity that is 60% – 80% of the out-of-plane value.
● Anisotropic heat conduction benefits PCM devices by reducing the programming current
and mitigating the thermal disturbance to adjacent cells. A fully coupled electrothermal
simulation unveils the detailed transient phase distribution during a programming
operation, enabling more efficient structural designs for multilevel memory operation.
 ● Nanoheaters down to 50 nm wide are patterned by electron-beam lithography in order to
measure the thermal resistance experienced by the single transistor channel, the
multi-gate configuration, and the device package.

Suitability of Semiconductor in Solar Cell Application

The semiconductor layers are the most important parts of a sun oriented cell; they frame the hart
of the sun powered cell. There are a number of different semiconductor materials that are
suitable for the transformation of vitality of photons into electrical vitality, each having points of
interest and disadvantages. The most important semiconductor properties that decide the sun
powered cell execution will be discussed.

Solar cells change over straightforwardly the vitality from the sun to usable electricity.
Photovoltaic cells utilize a semiconductor retaining radiations from the sun and emitting
electrons, which are saddled as electricity.

Solar cells comprise of a best and foot metallic grid or another electrical contact that collects the
isolated charge carriers and interfaces the cell to a lean layer that serves as an antireflective
coating covers the topside of the cell in arrange to diminish the reflection of light from the cell.
In arrange to ensure the cell against the impacts of external environment amid its operation, a
glass sheet or other sort of transparent encapsulant is connected to both sides of the cell. In case
of thin-film sun powered cells, layers that constitute the cell are kept on a substrate carrier. When
the processing temperature amid the testimony of the layers is moo, a wide extend of low-cost
substrates such as glass sheet, metal or polymer thwart can be utilized.
A solar panel made up of silicon semiconductors is called a silicon solar panel. A number of PV
cells aggregated in a confined panel act as a collector of solar energy. Silicon semiconductors are
popular because they exhibit properties such as low weight volume ratio, extended life cycle,
robustness and strength. Silicon semiconductors are easy to produce at low cost. Silicon solar
panels come in varying sizes to suit various applications. Silicon solar panels typically comprise
32, 36, 48, 60, 72 and 96 PV cells. Several of these panels can be connected in series or parallel
to obtain higher electric power suitable for high power demanding applications.

Conclusion

Semiconductor devices can display a range of useful properties, such as passing current more
easily in one direction than the other, showing variable resistance, and having sensitivity to light
or heat. Because the electrical properties of a semiconductor material can be modified by doping
and by the application of electrical fields or light, devices made from semiconductors can be
used for amplification, switching, and energy conversion. The unique optical properties of
semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) or quantum dots (QDs) have been paid more attention over
the past few decades. Specifically, the attractive photoluminescence feature of QDs derived from
the irradiative recombination of excited trapped carriers provides significant advantages such as
optical labels for chemo/biosensing. In this chapter, the unique electronic structure and optimized
photoluminescence routes have been overviewed. Meanwhile, the basic principles of
nanosensors by using different signals including colorimetric, fluorescence, voltammetric, and
Raman are summarized in detail. Finally, a host of preparation strategies and applications in
sensitive and selective determining metal ions in aqueous solutions and biosystems have been
comprehensively introduced and discussed to give insight into the design and modification
approaches used in metal ion nanosensors.
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