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Physics of electronic materials and

devices I

Lecture 7
Donors and Acceptors
We can obtain the Fermi level dependence on
temperature for three cases:
Very low temperature
Intermediate temperature
Very high temperature.

Donors and Acceptors
Very low temperature
Donors and Acceptors
Donors and Acceptors
Intermediate temperature
Donors and Acceptors
( )
ln
ln
ln
C F
D
C
D
F C
C
C
F C
D
E E
N
kT N
N
E E kT
N
N
E E kT
N
| |
=
|
\ .
| |
= +
|
\ .
| |
=
|
\ .
Donors and Acceptors
Very high temperature
In this case, all donors are ionized and electrons
are excited from valence band to conduction
band.
This is acting like an intrinsic semiconductor or
E
F
= E
i
.
It may be useful to express electron and hole
densities in terms of intrinsic concentration n
i

and the intrinsic Fermi level E
i
.

Donors and Acceptors
From , we have
Donors and Acceptors
Similarly to p-type, we have



This is valid for both intrinsic and
extrinsic semiconductors under thermal
equilibrium.

n-type semiconductor
(a) Schematic band diagram. (b) Density of states.
(c) Fermi distribution function (d) Carrier concentration.
Note that np = n
i
2
.

Donors and Acceptors
We have learned how to find new position of
Fermi level for extrinsic semiconductors.
Now let us consider the new electron density in
case of both donors N
D
and acceptors N
A
are
present simultaneously.
The Fermi level will adjust itself to preserve
overall charge neutrality as
(1)
A D
n N p N
+
+ = +
Donors and Acceptors
By solving (1) with , the equilibrium
electron and hole concentrations in an n-type
semiconductors yield

2
.
i
n p n =
( )
2
2
2
1
4
2
n D A D A i
i
n
n
n N N N N n
n
p
n
+ +
(
= + +
(

=
Donors and Acceptors
Similarly to p-type semiconductors, the electron
and hole concentrations are expressed as

( )
2
2
2
1
4
2
p A D D A i
i
p
p
p N N N N n
n
n
p
+ +
(
= + +
(

=
Donors and Acceptors
Generally, in case of all impurities are ionized,
the net impurity concentration N
D
N
A
is larger
than the intrinsic carrier concentration n
i
;
therefore, we may simply rewrite the above
relationship as

if
if
n D A D A
p A D A D
n N N N N
p N N N N
~ >
~ >
Donors and Acceptors
The figure shows
electron density in Si as a
function of temperature
for a donor concentration
of N
D
= 10
15
cm
-3
.


Donors and Acceptors
At low temperature, not all donor impurities
could be ionized and this is called Freeze-out
region since some electrons are frozen at the
donor level.

Donors and Acceptors
As the temperature increased, all donor
impurities are ionized and this remains the same
for a wide range of temperature.
This region is called Extrinsic region.

Donors and Acceptors
Until the temperature is increased even higher
and it reaches a point where electrons are
excited from valence band.
This makes the intrinsic carrier concentration
becomes comparable to the donor concentration.
At this region, the semiconductors act like an
intrinsic one.

Degenerate semiconductor
If the semiconductors are heavily doped for both
n- or p-type, E
F
will be higher than E
C
or below
E
V
, respectively.
The semiconductor is referred to as
degenerate semiconductor.
This also results in the reduction of the
bandgap.

Degenerate semiconductor
The bandgap reduction AE
g
for Si at room
temperature is expressed by



where the doping N is in the unit of cm
-3
.

18
22 meV
10
g
N
E A =
Example 1
Si is doped with 10
16
arsenic atoms/cm
3
. Find
the carrier concentration and the Fermi level at
room temperature (300K).
Sol
n
At room temperature, complete ionization of
impurity atoms is highly possible, then we have
n = N
D
= 10
16
cm
-3
.

Example 1
Sol
n
The Fermi level measured from the bottom of
the conduction band is
Example 1
Sol
n
The Fermi level measured from the intrinsic
Fermi level is
Direct recombination
When a bond between neighboring atoms is broken,
an electron-hole pair is generated.
The valence electron moves upward to the
conduction band due to getting thermal energy.
This results in a hole being left in the valence band.

Direct recombination
This process is called carrier generation with
the generation rate G
th
(number of electron-hole
pair generation per unit volume per time).
When an electron moves downward from the
conduction band to the valence band to
recombine with the hole, this reverse process is
called recombination.
The recombination rate represents by R
th
.

Direct recombination
Under thermal equilibrium, the generation rate
G
th
equals to the recombination rate R
th
to
preserve the condition of


The direct recombination rate R can be
expressed as


where | is the proportionality constant.

2
i
pn n =
R np | =
Direct recombination
Therefore, for an n-type semiconductor, we have



where n
n0
and p
n0
represent electron and hole
densities at thermal equilibrium.

0 0 th th n n
G R n p | = =
Direct recombination
If the light is applied on the semiconductor, it
produces electron-hole pairs at a rate G
L
, the
carrier concentrations are above their
equilibrium values.
The generation and recombination rates become



where An and Ap are the excess carrier concentrations

L th
G G G = +
( )( )
0 0 n n n n
R n p n n p p | | = = +A +A
Direct recombination



An = Ap to maintain the overall charge
neutrality.
The net rate of change of hole concentration is
expressed as

0
0
n n
n n
n n n
p p p
A =
A =
n
L th
dp
G R G G R
dt
= = +
Direct recombination
In steady-state, dp
n
/dt = 0. From (7) we have



where U is the net recombination rate.
Substituting (3) and (5) into (8), this yields

L th
G R G U =
( )
0 0 n n
U n p p p | = + +A A
Direct recombination
For low-level injection Ap, p
n0
<< n
n0
, (9) becomes



where t
p
is called excess minority carrier lifetime .

0 0
0
0
1/
n n n n
n
n p
p p p p
U n p
n
|
| t

~ A = =
0 n n p L
p p G t = +
Direct recombination
We may write p
n
in the
function of t as

( )
0
( ) exp /
n n p L p
p t p G t t t = +
Example 2
A Si sample with n
n0
= 10
14
cm
-3
is illuminated
with light and 10
13
electron-hole pairs/cm
3
are
created every microsecond. If t
n
= t
p
= 2 s, find
the change in the minority carrier concentration.
Example 2
Sol
n
Before illumination:


After illumination:
Continuity Equation
We shall now consider the overall effect when drift,
diffusion, and recombination occur at the same time in a
semiconductor material.
Consider the infinitesimal slice with a thickness dx
located at x shown in the figure.

Continuity Equation
The number of electrons in the slice may
increase because of the net current flow and the
net carrier generation in the slice.

Therefore, the overall rate of electron increase is
the sum of four components: the number of
electrons flowing into the slice at x, the number
of electrons flowing out at x+dx, the rate of
generated electrons, and the rate of
recombination.

Continuity Equation
This can be expressed as



where A is the cross-section area and Adx is the
volume of the slice.

( )
( ) ( )
e e
n n
n J x A J x dx A
Adx G R Adx
t q q
( c +
= +
(
c

Continuity Equation
By expanding the expression for the current at x
+ dx in Taylor series yields


Thus, we have the basic continuity equation for
electrons and holes as

( ) ( ) ...
e
e e
J
J x dx J x dx
x
c
+ = + +
c
( )
( )
1
1
e
n n
h
p p
n J
G R
t q x
p J
G R
t q x
c c
= +
c c
c c
= +
c c
Continuity Equation
We can substitute the total current density for
holes and electrons and (10) into (14).

e e n
h h p
dn
J q nE qD
dx
dn
J q nE qD
dx

= +
= +
Continuity Equation
For low-injection condition, we will have the
continuity equation for minority carriers as

2
2
2
2
p p p p po
p e e n n
n
n n n n no
n h h p p
p
n n n n n
E
n E D G
t x x x
p E p p p p
p E D G
t x x x

t

t
c c c
c
= + + +
c c c c
c c c c
= + + +
c c c c
The Haynes-Shockley Experiment
This experiment can be used to measure the carrier
mobility .
The voltage source establishes an electric field in the
n-type semiconductor bar. Excess carriers are
produced and effectively injected into the
semiconductor bar at contact (1). Then contact (2)
will collect a fraction of the excess carriers drifting
through the semiconductor bar.

The Haynes-Shockley Experiment
After the pulse, the transport equation given by
equation (15) can be rewritten as


If there is no applied electric field along the bar,
the solution is given by

2
2
n n n n no
h p
p
p p p p p
E D
t x x

t
c c c
= +
c c c
2
( , ) exp
4
4
n no
p p
p
N x t
p x t p
D t
D t
t
t
| |
= +
|
|
\ .
The Haynes-Shockley Experiment
N is the number of electrons or holes generated
per unit area. If an electric field is applied along
the sample, an equation (16) will becomes

( )
2
( , ) exp
4
4
p
n no
p p
p
x Et
N t
p x t p
D t
D t

t
t
| |

|
= +
|
\ .
The Haynes-Shockley Experiment
Example 3
In Haynes-Shockley experiment on n-type Ge
semiconductor, given the bar is 1 cm long, L =
0.95 cm, V
1
= 2 V, and time for pulse arrival =
0.25 ns. Find mobility .
Example 4
In a Haynes-Shockley experiment, the maximum
amplitudes of the minority carriers at t
1
= 100 s
and t
2
= 200 s differ by a factor of 5. Calculate
the minority carrier lifetime.
Example 4
Sol
n