Solid State Electronic Devices

KES 1223

CLO 1 (Course Learning Outcome 1)

Apply the theory of semiconductors to
explain and calculate the properties of
semiconductor materials
1. Describe semiconductor crystal
structure and energy band theory.

Introduction

Why are Solid State Devices

Important?

Todays technology

What is Solid State

Content
Semiconductor materials
Crystal Lattice

Semiconductor Materials

Semiconductor material

Periodic Table

Semiconductor Material

Semiconductor Material

Crystal Lattice
This topic discuss the arrangement of
atoms in various solids.
A crystalline solid is distinguished by the
fact that the atoms making up the crystal
are arranged in a periodic fashion.
There is some basic arrangement of
atoms that is repeated throughout the
entire solid.
However not all solids are crystals.

Classification of solids
SOLID MATERIALS
CRYSTALLINE

POLYCRYSTALLINE

AMORPHOUS
(Non-crystalline)

Single Crystal

Crystal Structure

20

Crystalline Solid

Crystalline Solid is the solid form of a substance in

which the atoms or molecules are arranged in a
definite, repeating pattern in three dimension.

Crystal Structure

21

Crystalline Solid

Single crystal has an atomic structure that repeats periodically across its whole
volume. Even at infinite length scales, each atom is related to every other
equivalent atom in the structure by translational symmetry

Single Pyrite
Crystal

Amorphous
Solid
Single Crystal
Crystal Structure

22

Polycrystalline Solid

Polycrystal is a material made up of an aggregate

of many small single crystals (also called
crystallites or grains).
The grains are usually 100 nm - 100 microns in
diameter. Polycrystals with grains that are <10 nm
in diameter are called nanocrystalline

Polycrystal

Polycrystalline
Pyrite form
(Grain)

Crystal Structure

23

Amorphous Solid
Amorphous (non-crystalline) Solid is composed of
randomly orientated atoms, ions, or molecules that
do not form defined patterns or lattice structures .

Crystal Structure

24

Types of Solids

Crystal Lattice
Lattice: A regular periodic array of lattice
points in space to represent the structure
of a single crystal
Lattice point: A structural unit repeated
periodically to form the lattice

Crystal Lattice
Unit Cell: a small volume that can be
repeated to fill (form) the entire crystal
Primitive Unit Cell: The smallest unit cell.
There is one lattice point per cell.
Fig 1-2 shows a two dimensional
arrangement of atoms called rhombic
lattice, with a primitive cell ODEF, which is
the smallest such cell.

Crystal Lattice

Primitive Cell
A primitive unit cell in a 2D structure is defined
by two vectors a, b (axis). Every equivalent
lattice point in the 2D crystal can be found by r
= pa + qb
p and q are integers
A primitive unit cell in a 3D structure is defined
by three vectors a, b, c (axis). Every
equivalent lattice point in the 3D crystal can be
found by r = pa + qb + sc
p,q,s are integers

Basic Crystal Structure

Three common types:
1.Simple cubic
2.Body-centered cubic (BCC)
3.Face-centered cubic (FCC)

Basic Crystal Structure

Fig. 1.3: structure and conventional unit
cells of
simple cubic, bcc, and fcc lattice.
The dimension a for a cubic unit cell is
called lattice constant
Volume of the unit cell=a3, a=lattice constant
(edge of the cell)

a) Simple Cubic b) Body-centered Cubic c) Face-centered

Cubic

Question
1. What are the number of atoms per unit
cell in a simple cubic, bcc, and fcc lattice?
2. The lattice constant of a fcc structure is
a=4.75. What is the volume density of
atoms?
3. The maximum fraction of the unit cell volume,
which can be filled by identical hard spheres
in the simple cubic and body-centered cubic

Plane and Directions

To describe the orientation of a crystal
surface (planes), we use Miller indices:
Find the intercepts of the plane on the axes
(the values of p,q,s)
Take the reciprocals of these numbers.
Multiply them by the lowest common
denominator to obtain smallest three
integers (hkl) (Miller indices).
The plane is referred as (hkl) plane.

Plane and Directions

Example 1 and Example 2.
Knowing the indices (hkl), one can
determine:
The distance between parallel planes
Surface concentration of atoms

The Diamond Structure

Two fcc structures displaced from each
other along the body diagonal by onefourth of its length (Fig. 1.4)
Each atom has four nearest-neighbor
atoms in a tetrahedral structure (Fig. 1.4)
Examples: C, Si, Ge
The conventional unit cell contains 8
atoms

Fig. 1.4: Diamond Structure

The Zincblende Structure

Two different types of atoms in the lattice.
Example: compound semiconductors
such as GaAs (Fig. 1.5)

Fig 1.5: The Zincblende Structure