Lecture 15

Topics to be covered:

Non-equilibrium Excess Carriers in Semiconductors

Minority Excess carrier life time
Recombination rate in p-type semiconductor
Recombination rate in n-type semiconductor

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 Non-equilibrium Excess Carriers in Semiconductors
Till now we learned about the physics of semiconductors in thermal
equilibrium condition.
When a voltage is applied or a current exists in a semiconductor
device, the semiconductor is operating under non-equilibrium
conditions.
During current transport due to drift of charge carrier, I did not
address non-equilibrium conditions but implicitly assumed that
equilibrium was not significantly disturbed.
If some how an external excitation is applied to the semiconductor,
the excess electrons in the conduction band and excess holes in the
valence band may exist in addition to the thermal-equilibrium
concentrations.
Now, I will discuss the behaviour of non-equilibrium electron and hole
concentrations as functions of time and space coordinates.
Excess carriers dominate the electrical properties of a semiconductor
material, and the behaviour of excess carriers is fundamental to the
operation of semiconductor devices. 2
Carrier generation and recombination:
Generation is the process whereby electrons and holes are created.
 Recombination is the process whereby electrons and holes are
annihilated.

Any deviation from thermal equilibrium will tend to change the electron
and hole concentrations in a semiconductor. Viz.

If we suddenly increase the temperature of a semiconductor, the rate

at which electrons and holes are thermally generated will increase and
hence their concentrations will change with time until new equilibrium
values are reached.

An external excitation, such as if we expose the semiconductor in

electromagnetic radiation (a flux of photons) excess electron and holes
are generated and hence creating a non-equilibrium condition.

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 The Semiconductor in Equilibrium:
In thermal equilibrium, the electron and hole concentrations are
independent of time.
 However, electrons are continually being thermally excited from the
valence band into the conduction band. So how the equilibrium is
achieved ?
At the same time, electrons moving
randomly through the crystal in the
conduction band may come in close
proximity to holes and ―fall‖ into the empty
states in the valence band. This
recombination process annihilates both
the electron and hole.
Since the net carrier concentrations are
independent of time in thermal
equilibrium, the rate at which electrons
and holes are generated and the rate at
which they recombine must be equal. 4
Let us consider a semiconductor in thermal equilibrium.
Let Gn0 and Gp0 be the thermal-generation rates of electrons and
holes, respectively.
For the direct band-to-band generation, the electrons
and holes are created in pairs, so

Let Rn0 and Rp0 be the recombination rates of electrons and holes,
respectively, then in direct band-to-band recombination, electrons and
holes recombine in pairs, so that

In thermal equilibrium, the concentrations of electrons and holes are

independent of time, therefore, the generation and recombination rates
are equal, so we have

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 Excess Carrier Generation and Recombination
Suppose high energy photons are incident on a semiconductor.
Now the electrons in the valence band may be excited into the
conduction band and a hole is created in valence band. Thus an
electron–hole pair is generated. This additional electrons and holes
created are called excess electrons and excess holes.
The excess electrons and holes are generated by an external force at
a particular rate.

Let gn’ be the generation rate

of excess electrons and gp’ be
that of excess holes. For the
direct band-to band generation,
the excess electrons and holes
are also created in pairs, so we
must have
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When excess electrons and holes are created, the concentration of
electrons in the conduction band and of holes in the valence band
increase above their thermal equilibrium value. We may write
&
where n0 and p0 are the thermal-equilibrium concentrations, and δn
and δp are the excess electron and hole concentrations.
The external force has perturbed the equilibrium condition so that the
semiconductor is no longer in thermal equilibrium (i.e. in non-equilibrium
state) and under this condition law of mass action is not valid.

A steady-state generation of excess

electrons and holes will not cause a
continuous build up of the carrier
concentrations.
Electron in the conduction band may
―fall down‖ into the valence band, leading
to the process of excess electron–hole
recombination.
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The recombination rate for excess electrons is denoted by Rn’ and for
excess holes by Rp’. The excess electrons and holes recombine in
pairs, so the recombination rates must be equal. We can then write

But in direct band-to-band recombination, the recombination occurs

spontaneously. Thus, the probability of an electron and hole
recombining is constant with time.

The rate at which electrons recombine must be proportional to the

electron as well as hole concentration.

The net rate of change in the electron concentration can be

written as

The first term αr ni2 is the thermal equilibrium generation rate. 8

Since excess electrons and holes are created and recombine in pairs,
we have δn(t) =δp(t)

Considering a low-level injection and p type semiconductor

i.e. δn(t) <<p0 ; p0 ≫ n0

The solution of above equation is-

Where,

is a constant for the low-level injection and describes the decay of

excess minority carrier electrons. 9
The τn0 is often referred to as the excess minority carrier lifetime.
The recombination rate—which is defined as a positive quantity—of
excess minority carrier electrons can be written as:

In direct band-to-band recombination, the excess majority carrier

holes recombine at the same rate, so that for the p-type material

Similarly in n-type material under low level injection:

δn(t) <<n0 ; n0 ≫ p0

The recombination rates of excess carrier are a function of excess

electron and hole concentration while generation rates of excess
carriers are not functions of electron or hole concentrations.
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