Semiconductor Materials

Reading
• West,
• Ch.3.4.3, 8.4
• Fahlman,
• Ch.4
• Smart & Moore,
• Ch.4
 What Are Semiconductors?

Conductivity of Solids

Materials Conductor Semiconductor Insulator

Resistivity ρ (Ω cm) ＜ 10-3 10-3～109 ＞109

Typical semiconductor materials:

• Si, Ge (element semiconductors)
• GaN, GaAs… (III-V)
• CdS, CdSe… (II-VI)
 Important Semiconductor Properties
• Conductivity increases with temperature
For pure Si at r.t., resistivity drops by 50% with T increase of 8 ○C

• Doping changes conductivity drastically

1 ppm of P in Si (99.9999% purity) decreases resistivity from 214,000
Ω·cm to 0.2 Ω·cm at r.t.

• Conductivity increases under optical radiation

Conductivity of CdS thin film can increase by 1,000 times with
appropriate light on it

• Conductivity changes in electric and magnetic fields

 Simple Band Structure of Si
What is the crystal structure of Si?

What is the valence electron configuration of a Si atom?

 E
Free
electrons

0 eV < 4 eV > 4 eV

Electrical conductivity is essentially move of electrons

Why are there still measurable conductivities for insulators?

 Fermi-Dirac Distribution Function
Distribution of electrons in semiconductors under
thermal equilibrium obey Fermi-Dirac statistics

1
fF (E) 
E  EF
1  exp
kT
fF(E): probability of state with energy E to be occupied by a electron

What is the probability of state (E) to be taken by a hole?

E = EF + 5kT fF(E) = 0.7%

E = EF - 5kT fF(E) = 99.3%

EF: Fermi level, with 50% of probability being occupied

 T = 0K
1
fF (E)  Energy E>EF E<EF E=EF
E  EF
1  exp
kT
Probability 0 1 1/2
 T > 0K
1
fF (E)  Energy E>EF E<EF E=EF
E  EF
1  exp
kT
Probability >0 <1 1/2
 1
fF (E) 
E  EF
1  exp
kT

E-EF>>kT

 E  EF   EF   E   E 
f B ( E )  exp     exp   exp     A exp   
 kT   kT   kT   kT 
F-D distribution approximated to Boltzmann distribution

EF-E>>kT
 EF  E   EF   E   E 
1  f(E)  exp     exp    exp    Bexp  
 kT   kT   kT   kT 
Boltzmann distribution for holes
• At r.t., kT = 0.026 eV
• Typical bandgaps for semiconductors: 1-4 eV
• Ec-EF>>kT, and EF-Ev>>kT
• States higher than Fermi level are mostly empty
• States below Fermi level are mostly full
• At Fermi level, probability is always 50%
• Distributions of electrons and holes in conduction band and
valence band are well described by Boltzmann function
 Charge Carriers in Semiconductors

Electron concentration at energy level E in conduction band:

n  E   gc  E  f F  E 
Density of Probability of
states with electron to
energy E occupy the state

Hole concentration at energy level E in valence band:

p  E   g v  E  1  f F  E  
Total electron concentration in conduction band:
Etop
n0   g c  E  f F  E  dE (4.3)
Ec

Effective electron mass

4  2m 
* 32 Density of states
gc  E  
n derived from
3
E - Ec (3.72)
quantum mechanics
h

 4  2m 
* 32
 E  EF 
n0   E - Ec exp  
n
 dE (4.5)
 
3
Ec h kT

Boltzmann
distribution (E>>EF)
 * 32 
(2m ) E-E c  E c -E F
 4π   (E-Ec ) exp( 
12
n
3
)dE
h Ec
kT

E  Ec
Let x
kT


(2m kT) * 32
Ec  EF
n0  4  n
exp( )  x1 2 e x dx
h3 kT 0

x
12 x
e dx
0
 (2 m kT)
EC  EF
32
E C -E F
n0  2 n
3
exp(  )  N Cexp(  )
h kT kT

2(2π m*n kT)3 2

Nc  Effective density of conduction
h3 band states

Likewise

Ev  EF
Ev
p 0   [1  f(E)]g V (E)dE  N v exp( ) (4.19
-
kT

2(2 m*p kT)3 2 Effective density of valence

Nv  band states
h3
 Intrinsic Semiconductors
Charge neutrality condition

qp0-qn0=0 (n0=p0=ni) ni: intrinsic carrier concentration

E C -E Fi
n 0  ni  N C exp(  ) (4.20)
kT

Ev  EFi
p 0  pi  ni  N v exp( ) (4.21)
kT
EFi: intrinsic Fermi level
n0 p0  ni 2 (4.43)

E C -E Fi Ev  EFi
ni  N c exp( 
2
)  N v exp( )
kT kT
Ec  Ev
 N c N v exp( )
kT
Eg
 N c N v exp(  ) (4.23)
kT

Independent of EF
Band gap:
• Si 1.12 eV
• Ge 0.67 eV
• GaAs 1.43 eV
 Fermi Level of Intrinsic Semiconductors
n0 = p0 = ni

E C -E Fi Ev  EFi
N c exp( )  N v exp( ) (4.24)
kT kT

2(2π m*n kT)3 2 2(2 m*p kT)3 2

Nc  Nv 
h3 h3

1 1  Nv  1 3  m*p 
EFi   Ec  Ev   kT ln     Ec  Ev   kT ln  * 
2 2  Nc  2 4  mn 
Center of bang gap