ENERGY GAP DETERMINATION USING SEMICONDUCTOR DIODES

Experiment-108 S

ENERGY GAP DETERMINATION

USING SEMICONDUCTOR DIODES
Dr D Sudhakar Rao, Verina DSouza and Chaitra Kamath
Dept. of Physics, St. Aloysius College, Light House Hill, Mangalore- 575 003. INDIA.
Email: sr23us@Yahoo.com

Abstract

Semiconductor energy gap is determined by passing small forward current

through Si, Ge, GaAsAl, GaAsP, SiC junction diodes. The junction voltage
variation is studied with temperature. From temperature versus junction voltage
curve, energy gap is determined.

Introduction
At absolute zero degree temperature, semiconductors are pure insulators. As the temperature is
increased thermal energy create vibrations in crystal lattice and few electrons, which acquire
sufficient vibrational energy break their covalent bond, become free, and move to the conduction
band. The energy required to rapture the covalent bond is designated as energy gap EG and
termed as energy gap or band gap energy. Energy less than EG is not acceptable or one cannot
have partially ruptured bond, hence this energy is also called as forbidden gap energy.
In silicon crystal, at room temperature (300K) about 1019 covalent bonds are broken per cubic
meter out of 1029 atoms. It is only one atom in 1010 exits with broken bond. This is less than one
atom per thousand atoms on each of the three-crystal axis. The electrons that are freed take part
in conduction and the material becomes semiconductor. Such a semiconductor is known as
intrinsic semiconductor. The resistivity of such a semiconductor falls in the range of 0.4 to 2500
ohmmeter. As the temperature increases above room temperature more and more covalent bonds
are broken and conduction increase rapidly and resistivity fall.
Intrinsic semiconductors are useless for electronics applications because of their low conduction
at room temperature. Adding impurity atom from the third or fifth group elements can increase
the conduction. This process of adding impure atom is known as doping and the doped
semiconductor becomes extrinsic semiconductor. Addition of impurity from the fifth group
element result in n-type semiconductor and addition of impurity atom from third group results in
p-type semiconductor.
Energy gap is a very important parameter of semiconductor that decides its applicability.
Determination of semiconductor energy gap is an important experiment in physics lab. Pure
semiconductors or intrinsic semiconductors are not available easily for measurements. Extrinsic
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semiconductors are easily available for EG measurements. However, the presence of impurity
atom will slightly modify the energy gap of the parent element. Hence, to reduce the contribution
of impurity atoms the impurity atoms as subdued by passing very low forward current. When the
forward current is low, most of the impurity atoms are quiet and do not participate in conduction.
Hence, conduction is purely due to parent element; hence, one can make use extrinsic
semiconductor in energy gap determination. Varieties of extrinsic semiconductors are available
in pn junction form that can be used for the measurement of energy gap. Table-1 list various
semiconductor samples easily available in the market for energy gap determination.
Table-1
Materials Device EG (eV)
Si Diode 4007 1.15
Ge Diode DR25 0.67
GaP LED Green 2.22
GaPN LED yellowish green 2.17
GaAsP Led Yellow 2.10
Ga AsP N LED Orange red 1.99
GaAsAl LED standard red 1.92
GaAsSi LED infrared 1.30
SiC LED Blue 3.50
GaAsP LED white 4.20
Various semiconductor materials available for this experiment
Junction diode
A pn crystal is called junction diode. Diode can be forward or reverse biased using a voltage
source. During forward bias forward current flows through the diode. The forward current is
given by [1,2]
qV
I F = I R e kT 1 1


Where IF is called forward current
IR is called reverse current or reverse saturation current
q is electronic charge e =1.6x10-19 Coulomb
is called ideality factor varies between 1 and 1.5 [2]
k is Boltzman constant = 1.38x10-23J/K
T is temperature in degree Kelvin

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When the diode is reverse biased negligible reverse current flows through the diode. The reverse
current is given by

(
I R = BT 3 e E G kT ) 2

The reverse current in case of silicon diode is zero that makes it a perfect diode. Germanium
diodes (obsolete at present) show reverse current and gets the name leaky diode. LEDs also have
very small reverse current. The reverse current is temperature dependent. The constant B
appearing in equation 2 is a constant connected with the structure or the area of the depletion
region.
Substituting equation 2 in equation 1
EG qV
3 kT
I F = BT e e kT 1
3

BT 3 qV / kT
e E G / kT
=
IF
e ( )
1 4

Taking natural logarithm of both the sides

EG BT 3 qV
= ln + 5
kT I F kT

E G BT 3 kT
V= ln 6
q I F q

Equation 6 represents a straight-line graph with slope

BT 3 k
Slope = ln 7
IF q

And Y-intercept
EG
Yint ercept = 8
q
Knowing the Y intercept the energy gap can be calculated. From the slope, B can be determined.
E G = qYint ercept 9

qSlope BT 3
= ln 10
k IF

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Rising to the power of e

BT 3
e qSlope k = 11
IF
From equation 11, the constant appearing in the reverse current equation B can be evaluated.

I
B = F e qSlope k 12
T3
To determine the energy gap EG a small constant current of the order of 100 200 A is passed
through the diode at various temperatures. The voltages developed at the junction are noted. The
junction voltage versus temperature graph is drawn. From the straight-line graph, Y intercept
gives the EG directly in electron volt. From the slope, constant B is calculated using equation-12.
For small forward current of the order of hundreds of microampere eslope is unity. Which indicate
that the graphs for different diodes are all parallel and the constant B is independent of diode
material, it depends only on the forward current, hence it is connected with majority carriers.
0-1mA

DCM

Constant 0-2V/20V
Current DVM V Dual
Source Range
50-200uA

Figure-1, Circuit connection used for EG determination

Figure-1 shows a constant current source driving a diode. A digital dc micro ammeter is
connected in series to note the forward current and digital dc voltmeter is used to record the
junction voltage.
Temperature Variation
The sample diode is provided with 15-inch wire so that it can be immersed in a temperature bath.
The temperature bath is a 250ml glass beaker. Liquid paraffin is boiled on a hot plate and poured
in to the beaker. A 160-degree thermometer (a digital temperature indicator) bulb is placed in
level with the diode body and placed inside the test tube as shown in Figure-2 (b). The test tube
is filled with cotton and placed in hot liquid paraffin. As the liquid cools the temperature and
junction voltages are noted.

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(a) (b)
Figure-2, (a) LED connected to 15 inch wire (b) LED and Thermometer bulb placed close
to each other inside test tube

Figure-3, Temperature variation arrangements

Apparatus Used
Constant current source 50-200A, digital micro ammeter 0-200A, digital dc voltmeter
2V/20V, 250ml beaker, 250ml liquid paraffin, 10ml test tube, thermometer 160C, cotton, retort
stand with boss and clamp, diodes 4007, DR25, Red LED, Yellow LED, Blue LED and White
LED. Ice and ice bowl.
Experimental Procedure
The diodes are provided with long (15 inch) wires that can be directly connected to the constant
current source, in series with a digital dc micro ammeter and circuit is completed as shown in
Figure-1.
1. Silicon diode is selected and circuit is rigged as shown in Figure-1. The diode along with the
thermometer is placed inside the test tube such that diode and thermometer bulb are side by
side as shown in Figure-2(b). To arrest the air circulation, the test tube is filled with cotton.

2. The test tube is placed in the beaker and liquid paraffin is heated on a hot plate in a boiling
pan, when boiling paraffin is transferred to the beaker.

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3. After few minutes when the temperature is steady, the current through the diode is set to
100A by adjusting the constant current source knob. The current should remain constant
through out the experiment. The steady temperature is noted

T = 127C = 127+273 = 400K

4. At this temperature the junction voltage is also noted

V = 0.171V
5. As liquid paraffin cools, the temperature decreases. Junction voltage is noted for different
temperature at 10C interval. The readings obtained are tabulated in Table-2.

6. Once the liquid paraffin cools down sufficiently, the test tube is removed from the beaker and
placed in ice bowl and junction voltage is measured at 0, 7, 17C. The readings obtained are
tabulated in Table-2.

7. Experiment is repeated for Germanium, Red LED, Blue LED and White LED. In each case
junction, voltage is noted at different temperatures and recorded in Table-2.

Table-2
Temperature Junction Voltage (V)
Si Ge GaAlAs SiC GaASP
C K 4007 DR25 Red LED Blue White
127 400 0.171 -1.145 1.410 2.38 2.60
117 390 0.185 -1.172 1.426 2.40 2.64
107 380 0.222 -1.210 1.454 2.42 2.68
97 370 0.249 -1.218 1.469 2.45 2.71
87 360 0.280 -1.242 1.501 2.48 2.76
77 350 0.301 0.001 1.565 2.53 2.80
67 340 0.329 0.011 1.586 2.53 2.82
57 330 0.349 0.030 1.622 2.57 2.85
47 320 0.384 0.051 1.649 2.60 2.87
37 310 0.409 0.078 1.662 2.63 2.90
27 300 0.425 0.105 1.701 2.66 2.98
17 290 0.460 0.115 1.729 2.68 3.01
7 280 0.479 0.130 1.746 2.71 3.06

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0 273 0.495 0.155 1.753 2.72 3.08

Junction voltages at various temperatures
8. A graph is drawn taking temperature in degree K along X-axis and junction voltage along Y-
axis as shown in Figure-4. The straight-line curve is extended to cut the Y-axis and the Y
intercept is noted.
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Junction Voltage (V)
4

0
0 100 200 300 400
Temperature in degree K

Figure-4, Variation of junction voltage with temperatures

Y intercept-Si = 1.1V

Energy gap of Silicon semiconductor is calculated using equation-9

19 19 1.76 x10 19 J
E G = qYint ercept = 1.6 x10 x1.1 = 1.76x10 J= eV = 1.1eV
1.6x10 19
The Yntercept directly reads the energy gap in electron volt.
9. Experiment is repeated for Germanium, GaAsAl, SiC and GaAsP diodes. In each case
junction voltage is noted at different temperatures and noted in Table-2.

Results
The results obtained are tabulated in Table-3.
Table-3
Device Material EG(eV)
Expt Thet
4007 Si 1.10 1.20
DR25 Ge 0.60 0.67
Red LED GaAsAl 2.20 1.92

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Blue LED SiC 3.46 3.50

White LED GaAsP 4.12 4.20
Experimental Results
Discussions
A new straightforward method of semiconductor energy gap determination is presented in this
experiment. The method is easy to perform and verities of samples are available. The experiment
is performed with 2mA and 5mA forward current to see the effect of forward current on EG
value. Absolutely no variation is observed on the EG up to 5mA current.
An estimation of Silicon and Germanium reverse current is made and the constant B is
determined from the slope of the straight line. The reverse current or the reverse saturation
current obtained for Silicon diode is of the order of pico amphere and for Germanium diode it is
of the order of nano amphere. Further, the reverse current is found to vary with temperature. The
reverse current doubled for every 10-degree increase in the temperature value. A separate
experiment will be published in future LE volumes on determination of reverse saturation current
in Silicon and Germanium, diodes.
22K Set IF
A A
47K
5V

B
B
Figure-5, Constant current source
In case, if you do not have constant current source you may construct one such with 5V power
supply as shown in Figure-5. A complete experimental setup is also available with KamalJeeth
for this experiment.
References
[1] Dr S Sankararaman and Jaiby Joseph, Variation of ideality factor, LE Vol-4, No-3, Sept-
2004, Page 174.
[2] R A Dunlap, Experimental Physics, Modern Methods
[3] Fischer Charles W, Elementary technique to measure the band gap and diffusion potential
of p-n junction, American Journal of Physics 50, 1103-1105, 1989

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