EED102: Semiconductor

Devices
Dr. Venkatnarayan Hariharan
Dept of Electrical Engg., Shiv Nadar Univ., Delhi NCR

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 Agenda
• Electrons and holes as charge carriers
in semiconductors
• Band structure and conductivity
effective mass of carriers
• Doping and extrinsic semiconductors
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 Electric Current: Motion of Charge
• Electric current is simply the rate of flow of charge, when
summed amongst all the contributing charge carriers in all
the various participating energy bands (in the energy band
concept of a crystalline semicon)
• The primary charge carrier in a material is an electron
(symbol 𝑛)
• For charge to flow, 2 conditions need to be met:
• Charges must exist in a band to participate in motion
• Vacant energy states must exist in a band for the
charges to occupy those states
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Electrons and Holes
• In a pure (ie. intrinsic/undoped) semicon at 0 °K,
the valance band is fully filled with electrons and
the conduction band is totally empty
• Thus, neither of the above 2 conditions are met
• But at room temperature, some of the electrons
are thermally excited from the valence band to
the conduction band, leaving behind some empty
states in the valence band
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 Electrons and Holes
• The vacant energy states in the
valence band are called holes (symbol
𝑝)
• They can be thought of as contributing
to current as the participating agents
in the valence band
• The real physical carrier is still the
electron, albeit with different dynamics
(viz. effective mass), primarily due to the
different band structures (E-k) of the
conduction and valence bands
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 Electrons and Holes
• Effectively, you can deem:
• Electrons as being the participating charge carriers in the conduction
band
• Holes as being the participating charge carriers in the valence band
• This does not tantamount to double counting, because the
underlying physical considerations does indeed factor in vacant
energy states being available in both bands
• For purposes of current calculation, holes are deemed as
positive charges (same magnitude as electron charge), albeit
having a different effective mass from that of an electron

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 Electrons and Holes – Intrinsic Semicon
• Rough physical visualization for Si
(silicon) shown here (though it is
inaccurate from a Quantum Mechanics
standpoint and for purposes of
calculating useful quantities)
• If one of the covalent bonds is broken
such that one of the electrons in the
bond becomes free to move about in
the lattice, a conduction electron is
created and a broken bond (hole) is
left behind
• The energy required to break the bond
is the band gap energy 𝐸𝑔
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 Effective Mass of Carriers
• As stated earlier, band diagrams show
spatial variation of the band edges
(bottom of conduction band 𝐸𝑐 and
top of valence band 𝐸𝑣 )
• Figure on the right shows the band
structure superimposed on a band
diagram
• The x-axis is spatial location (say 𝑥)
• The y-axis is total energy 𝐸 (= 𝑃𝐸 + 𝐾𝐸)
• 𝐸𝑣 and 𝐸𝑐 levels denote PE (Potential
Energy)
• Carriers are distributed somewhere in
such an energy space
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 Effective Mass of Carriers
• The slope of 𝐸𝑐 (or 𝐸𝑣 , since they are parallel in a homogeneous
material) wrt space denotes the potential gradient, which is a
measure of the electric field in the material
• The extent above 𝐸𝑐 is the KE (Kinetic Energy) of the electron
• The extent below 𝐸𝑣 is the KE of the hole
• In such diagrams, electron energies increase in the up direction
whereas hole energies increase in the down direction
• Whenever possible, carriers always tend to move to a point of
lowest allowed energy (stable state)
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 Effective Mass of Carriers
• Thus, electrons higher up in the conduction band tend to
settle down to the 𝐸𝑐 level whereas holes deep down in the
valence band tend to float up like bubbles to the 𝐸𝑣 level
• In doing so, they give up their KE (as heat to the lattice, for
example) to reach those PE levels
• Similarly, in a potential gradient (ie. electric field 𝐸𝐹𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑),
electrons at the bottom of 𝐸𝑐 will tend to roll downhill
along the downslope of 𝐸𝑐 whereas holes at the top of 𝐸𝑣
will tend to float uphill along the upslope of 𝐸𝑣
• This is the same as saying that electrons get attracted to the
positive electrode of a pair of electrodes that are creating the
𝐸𝐹𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑
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 Effective Mass of Carriers
• Consider the superimposed band diagram in slide 7 with an electron moving through
the sample from A to B under the influence an 𝐸𝐹𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑
• The 𝐸𝐹𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑 is given by the slope of either band edge (PE)
• As the electron moves from A to B in the band diagram (horizontally in the energy
space in the figure), it gains KE (the differential above band edge) while losing PE (𝐸𝑐
downslope)
• Correspondingly, in the (E, k) band structure, the electron starts at 𝑘 = 0, but moves
to a nonzero wavevector 𝑘𝐵 . The electron then loses KE as heat to the lattice by
scattering mechanisms and returns to the bottom of the band at B
• In reality, the electron may lose its KE in stages by a series of scattering events, as
shown by the colored dashed lines
• Note: If the 𝐸𝐹𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑 between A and B were not constant, the slope of the band edges
would not be constant but would vary at each point reflecting the magnitude and
direction of the local 𝐸𝐹𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑
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 Effective Mass of Carriers
• For isotropic materials (where band structures are simple
and identical in all k-directions), the conductivity effective
mass is defined as
2
ℏ
𝑚∗ = 2
𝑑 𝐸/𝑑𝑘 2
ℎ
where ℏ = and ℎ is the Planck’s constant
2𝜋
• It is defined thus so as to be able to semi-classically
approach carrier dynamics, ie. apply Newton’s Laws to the
𝐸 − 𝑘 description (that in turn has been derived quantum
mechanically) of a material
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 Effective Mass of Carriers
• The 2nd derivative is related to the curvature of E-k
diagram (band structure) => Conductivity effective is
inversely proportional to the curvature
• Figure shows the band structure of GaAs. Three 𝐸𝑐
minimas are seen, at 𝑘 values corresponding to 3
different high symmetry points
• The one at 𝑘 = 0 is called the Γ point (pronounced gamma)
• The one along [100] direction is called the 𝑋 point
• The one along [111] direction is called the 𝐿 point
• The 𝐸𝑐 edge at the Γ point (𝑘 = 0) has the sharpest (ie.
highest) curvature => Electrons in this particular
conduction band have the least effective mass,
compared to the 𝐿 and 𝑋 conduction band minimas

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 Extrinsic Semiconductors
• Intrinsic semicons have very few carriers at room temperature
• E.g.: Si has about 1.5𝑒10 𝑐𝑚−3 electrons/holes (ie. 1.5x1010 𝑐𝑚−3 )
• Intrinsic semicons will always have an equal number of electrons and holes at
equilibrium, since they are thermally generated in a pure sample
• These can be doped by specific impurities to make it n-rich or p-
rich, in which case they are called extrinsic semicons
• Example:
• Si is a group-4 element (in the periodic table)
• Doping Si with a group 5 element like As, P, etc creates fully occupied
energy levels in the band gap close to 𝐸𝑐 , barely 50 𝑚𝑒𝑉 (milli-electron
Volt) away from 𝐸𝑐 . These are called donor levels 𝐸𝑑
• Doping Si with a group 3 element like B, In, etc creates fully empty energy
levels in the band gap close to 𝐸𝑣 , barely 50 𝑚𝑒𝑉 (milli-electron Volt)
away from 𝐸𝑣 . These are called acceptor levels 𝐸𝑎
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 Extrinsic Semiconductors
• Exact mechanics of doping:
• N-type doping: Electrons at donor level
𝐸𝑑 are easily excited at room
temperature to almost fully jump to 𝐸𝑐 ,
thus making the conduction band
electron rich (n-rich)
• P-type doping: Electrons in 𝐸𝑣 are easily
excited at room temperature to almost
fully occupy all the vacant states in the
acceptor level 𝐸𝑎 , thus making the
valence band hole rich (p-rich)
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 Extrinsic Semiconductors
• Exact mechanics of doping:
• Structurally, such doped impurities occupy lattice sites in the crystal
• An As atom (Gr V) in the Si lattice has four necessary valence electrons to complete the
covalent bonds with the neighboring Si atoms, plus one extra electron. This fifth electron
does not fit into the bonding structure of the lattice and is therefore loosely bound to
the As atom. Little thermal energy enables this extra electron to overcome its coulombic
binding to the impurity atom and be donated to the lattice as a whole. Thus it is free to
participate in current conduction. This process is a qualitative model of the excitation of
electrons out of a donor level and into the conduction band
• Similarly, the Gr III impurity B has only three
valence electrons to contribute to the covalent
bonding, thereby leaving one bond incomplete.
With a little thermal energy, this incomplete
bond can be transferred to other atoms as the
bonding electrons exchange positions. The
resulting electron "hopping" from an adjacent
bond into the incomplete bond at the B site is
akin to hole flow in the valence band
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END OF LECTURE

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