Welcome to All of You

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 Engineering Physics

Compiled By:
Prof. Puneet Mathur
Assistant Professor
M a r w a d i U n i v e r s i t y, R a j k o t
Location : Ma055
Email Id: puneet.mathur@marwadieducation.edu.in

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TEACHING SCHEME

3 hours Lecture + 2 hours Lab

Course Objective:

Objective: The graduates will be able to solve non-traditional

problems that potentially draw on knowledge in multiple areas of
physics.

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Syllabus & Course Outcomes

Syllabus :

Course Outcome: After completion of this course, student will be able to

• Understand basic physics of semiconductor and use it in various engineering applications.
• Acquire knowledge of magnetic materials.
• Obtain knowledge of mechanism of various lasers and apply it for optical fiber
communication.
• Prepare different basic logic gate circuits and check its application in various engineering
fields.
• Apply various numerical analysis methods to solve scientific problems/develop
mathematical model

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 Introduction
Definition:
Semiconductors are those materials which have conductivity between conductors (Silver,
Copper etc.) and Insulators (glass, wood, diamond etc.)

Properties of Semiconductor

Have usually resistivity

They have negative temperature of coefficient of resistance (Decrease in resistivity with
increase in temperature)
Metallic in nature
At 0 K they will behave as insulators
Both electrons and holes are charge carriers
Filled valence band and an empty conduction band at 0 K

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Importance of Semiconductor
Why Important???
1. Can control the number of charge carriers (Electrons & Holes)
2. Can give Unidirectional Current

Disadvantages of Vacuum Tube:

Bulky in size
Vacuum creation
Operates at high power
High voltage
Low life
Less reliability
Classification of solids on the basis of band theory
Based on the energy band structure, the arrangement of electrons and
forbidden bands, solid materials are classified into the following three
categories:
(i) Conductors
(ii) Insulators, and
(iii) Semiconductors

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Conductors
• Materials which conduct electric current when a
potential difference is applied across
• them, are known as conductors.
• In case of a conductor, the valence band is
completely filled, while the conduction band is half
filled, as shown in Fig.
• Therefore, when a small potential difference is
applied to a solid material, it provides sufficient
energy to the electron in the valence band to shift to
the conduction band.
• Thus, the shifting of electrons from the valence
band to the unfilled conduction band results in the
flow of current in the material.
• Examples for some good conductors are copper,
lithium, etc 10
Valence Band Conduction Band

Range of energy possessed by valence The band above Valence band is called
electron in crystal Conduction band
It contains valence electrons Range of energies posses by free Electrons
in crystals
These valence band electrons not Electron may or may not exist in
participate in electrical conductivity conduction band

Conduction band electrons are responsible

for electrical conductivity.

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Insulators
• Solid materials which do not conduct electric current
under normal conditions are known as insulators.
• In insulators, the valence band is completely filled
and it has no electron in the conduction band.
Further, the forbidden energy gap will be very high
when compared with a conductor.
• Therefore, the energy required to shift an electron
from the valence band to the conduction band to
make electrical conduction is very high.
• Hence, it is not possible to provide enough energy by
an ordinary electric field.
• However, one can achieve electrical conduction in
an insulator with very high voltage, known as
breakdown voltage.

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Semiconductors
Semiconductors (for example, silicon or germanium)
are materials whose electrical conductivity lies between
that of conductors and insulators. The conductivity of
semiconductors is of the order of 104 to 10-4 mho m-1
. The magnitude of the forbidden energy gap of a
semiconductor lies in between the forbidden energy gap
of insulators and conductors, as shown in Fig.

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Types of Semiconductor
a) Elemental Semiconductors
 They are composed of single atoms Generally found in group IV of periodic
table
 Si, Ge, C, Pb etc.
b) Compound Semiconductors
 Semiconductors which are composed of two or more different species of atoms
are compound semiconductors
 GaA, GaP, InAs, InP, ZnS, CdS etc
 Compound with three elements are ternary compounds, with quaternary
compounds and so on..
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Semiconductor
1) Intrinsic Semiconductors
Pure semiconductors are called intrinsic
semiconductors

2) Extrinsic Semiconductors
It is a semiconductor in impure form, obtained by
adding impute atoms called dopants to an intrinsic
semiconductors

Based on the element of doping (impurity dopant

added), extrinsic semiconductors can be of two types
a) P-type semiconductors
b) N-type semiconductors
P-type Semiconductors
It is formed by doping trivalent impurity in
Si or Ge. For e.g. Ga, In, B, Al
If Al with three electrons forms covalent
bonds with neighboring Si atoms having four
electrons, the fourth bond as shown will be
incomplete covalent bond.
There will be absence of electron (Presence
of hole).
This forms P-type semiconductor
P-type Semiconductors
N-type Semiconductors
when a pentavalent atom such as arsenic (antimony,
bismuth, phosphorus) is added as a dopant to the
tetravalent silicon atom, the phosphorus atom will
occupy one site of the silicon atom.
Thus, out of five free electrons in phosphorus, four
electrons make covalent bonds with the four
neighbouring silicon atoms and the fifth one is loosely
bound to the silicon atom
The energy required to ionize the fifth electron is very
less and hence, the thermal energy of the material shifts
the free electron to the conduction band. Each arsenic
atom contributes one free electron to the crystal and
hence, it is called a donor impurity. In
this type of semiconductor, the concentration of charge
carriers (i.e., electrons) is more than that of holes.
Therefore, these semiconductors are called n-type
semiconductors. In an n-type semiconductor, electrons
are the majority carriers while holes are the minority
carriers.
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Difference Between p- type and n-type Semiconductors

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Intrinsic Semiconductors – Carrier Concentration
• Carrier Concentration (ni)

• No. of charge carriers per unit volume is

called carrier concentration

• Fermi Energy:

• Energy difference between highest and lowest

occupied state at absolute zero
• In an intrinsic semiconductors for every
excited electron moving to a conduction band
there is a hole created in a valence band
• Thus in an intrinsic semiconductor
• Density of electrons (ne) = density of
holes (nh)
• ne = n h
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Intrinsic Semiconductor - Temperature

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Intrinsic Semiconductor - Temperature
• At room temperature, the thermal energy
may cause a few of the covalent bonds to
break, thus generating the free electrons
as shown
• The electrons thus generated get excited
and move into the conduction band from
the valence band, overcoming the energy
barrier
• During this process, each electron leaves
behind a hole in the valence band.
• The electrons and holes created in this
way are called intrinsic charge carriers
and are responsible for the conductive
properties exhibited by the intrinsic
semiconductor material.
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Intrinsic Semiconductor
• On applying an electric field an intrinsic semiconductor, the
electron-hole pairs can be made to drift under its influence.
• In this case, the electrons move in the direction opposite to
that of the applied field while the holes move in the direction
of the electric field
• In semiconductor the flow of electron and flow of holes
constitute to the total current through the semiconductor

• Conductivity for semiconductor is given by +

• Here = carrier concentration of electron and = carrier
concentration of hole, and are electron and hole mobilities

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Carrier generation and recombination
• Carrier Generation
• It is a process where electron-hole pairs are created by exciting an electron from
valence band to conduction band, creating a hole in valence babd

• Carrier Recombination
• Recombination is a reverse process, where electron from conduction band recombine
with hole in valence band and are annihilated (destroyed)
• In recombination both carriers disappear. The process of recombination of electrons
with holes release energy in the form of phonons

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Carrier Recombination
• Radiative Recombination
• Shockley-Read-Hall recombination
• Auger recombination

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Recombination
Photon Transition (Optical generation/recombination)
- It is known as direct recombination (band to band
transition)
- Electron from conduction band fall to the valence band
and release energy in form of photon
- The reverse process - generation of electron-hole pairs
triggered by sufficiently energetic photon, transfer its energy
to valence band electron, moving it to conduction band and
leaving behind hole in valence band
- The photon energy should be equal to band gap to remove
electron from valence band

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Phonon Transition (Shockley-Read-Hall(SRH)
Recombination)
• Indirect or Trap-assisted recombination.
EC
• Trap assisted recombination of electron and
holes ET

• The electron passing through a lattice defect EV

at energy level ET within the semiconductor
bandgap
• The charge trap can be caused by presence of
any foreign atom or structural defect

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Phonon Transition (Shockley-Read-Hall(SRH)
Recombination)
• Electron Emission
• A trapped electron moves from the trap energy level to EC
conduction band
ET
• The electron capture rate is proportional to the electron
EV
concentration in conduction band
• Hole capture rate is proportional to hole concentration in
valence band
• Hole and electron emission rates are proportional to
concentration of empty traps and filled traps respectively
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Phonon Transition (Shockley-Read-Hall(SRH)
Recombination)
• Hole Capture
• Trapped electron moves to valence band and neutralizes a hole. EC
A photon with energy (ET - EV) is generated
ET
• Hole Emission
EV
• An electron from valence band is trapped in band gap defect
state, leaving a hole in the valence band
• i.e. hole emitted from empty trap to valence band

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Carrier transport: diffusion and drift
Drift Current
Flow of charge carriers, which is due to applied voltage or electric field is called drift current
In a semiconductors holes and electron are charge carriers
Voltage applied to semiconductor, free electron move towards positive terminal of battery and
holes move towards negative terminal
Applied voltage drifts the electron towards positive terminal

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Carrier transport: diffusion and drift
Drift Velocity
Drift Current
Diffusion Current

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Carrier transport: Drift Cureent
Applied voltage drifts the electron towards positive terminal
The average velocity that an electron or hole achieves, due to applied voltage or electric field is
called Drift Velocity
Drift Velocity
Ve = µeE
Drift Velocity
Vh = µhE

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Carrier transport: Drift Current
Drift current density due to free electrons is
Je = neµeE
Drift current density due to holes is
Jh = neµhE

Total drift current density

J = Je + Jh
 = neµeE + neµhE
J = ne E (ue + uh)

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Diffusion Current
The process by which charge carriers in a semiconductor
move from a region of higher concentration to a region of
lower concentration is called 'Diffusion'
Region with more no. of electrons is called higher
concentration region
Region with less no. of electron is called lower concentration
region
"Current produced due to the motion of charge carriers from a
region of higher concentration to lower concentration is called
diffusion current"
Process occurs in semiconductors which are non-uniformely
doped
Diffusion current occurs without an external voltage or
applied electric field
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p-n junction

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p-n junction
• Forward Bias
• Positive terminal of battery connected
with p-type semiconductor
• Negative terminal of battery connected
to n-type semiconductor
• Current flow from p-type to n-type
semiconductor
• Electrons flow from n-type to p-type
semiconductor
• Reverse Bias
• Positive terminal of battery connected
with n-type semiconductor

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P-n junction forward bias

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Energy band diagram

• P-type semiconductor – Fermi level is close

to valence band
• N-type – Fermi level is close to conduction
band

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Energy band diagram and p-n junction

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Metal-semiconductor junction (Ohmic and Schottky)
Work Function
It is minimum energy required to transfer an electron from a point within a solid to a
point just outside its surface
Electron affinity
It is defined as the amount of energy released when an electron is added to a neutral
atom
When a metal and semiconductor are brought into contact, there a two types of
junctions formed, depending on the work function of semiconductor and its relation
with metal
Schottky junction
Ohmic junction
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Semiconductor materials of interest for optoelectronic devices
Semiconductor material of interest for optoelectronic devices
When the photons of energy equal to or greater than the band gap energy are incident
on semi-conductor, electrons from the valence band are excited to conduction band,
thereby creating electron-hole paires
a) Photoconductivity
When the optical excitation (due to laser) is incident on material, its conductivity
increases due to electron-hole pair formation, such an optical excitation is called
photoconductivity
b) Luminiscence
The property of light emission is called luminiscence
 Photoluminiscence, Cathodoluminescence, Electroluminescence
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LED (Light Emitting Diode)
Two-lead semiconductor device which emit light, when
electrons (from valence band) recombine with holes (in
conduction band)

LED's are basically p-n junctions that are made from

very thin layer of doped semiconductor material

When in forward biased - LED emits light of specific

wavelength

Eg: GaAs, GaAsP, GaP, AlGaP, SiC

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Working of LED

• The fermi levels line up in equilibrium

• There is a built-in potential (depletion layer) due to which, electrons from n-side are not
able to cross the junction
• When forward voltage is applied to LED, width of depletion layer decreases on increasing
applied voltage
• Electrons, will have sufficient to overcome (cross) the potential barrier

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Working of LED

These electrons on crossing the barrier, recombine with holes and release the difference of energy (EC - EV) in the
form of photons
Each recombination of carriers, emits some light
The energy of photons depends on the forbidden energy gap
When forward bias applied to an LED is small, intensity of emitted light is small.
As forward current increases, emitted light also increase
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Characteristics of LED
Initially with increase in voltage
zero current is flowing through
the device
After application of cut-in
voltage (>0.6 V) the current
increases exponentially
With increase in voltage above
cut-in value the intensity of light
also increases
Application: Camera Flashing,
Traffic Lights, General lights,
medical devices
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Photodiode
A photodiode is a semiconductor device
that converts light into electric current

Material Used for construction of

photodiodes
a) silicon
b) Germanium
c) Indium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs)

The working priciple of photodiode is

photoelectric effect
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Working of Photodiode
Working
A normal p-n junction diode allows a small
amount of electric current under reverse bias
To increase current under reverse bias, there
should be more minority charge carriers, but
cannot increase their population
Minority carriers due to external reverse bias
recombine in same material before they cross
junction. Hence no current flows
To increase charge carrier in depletion region,
light (photon) is used as external energy source
When no light is applied ‘Dark Current’ flows
through the circuit
The reverse current flows when incident light
is applied

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