EE495/695

Introduction to
Semiconductors I
Y. Baghzouz
ECE Department
UNLV
 Introduction
• Solar cells have always been
aligned closely with other
electronic devices.
• We will cover the basic
aspects of semiconductor
materials and the physical
mechanisms which are at the
centre of photovoltaic
devices.
• These physical mechanisms An ingot of silicon, consisting
are used to explain the of a single large crystal of
operation of a p-n junction, silicon.
which forms the basis of the
greatest majority of solar cells
 Semiconductor Structure
• Semiconductors are made up of
individual atoms bonded together in a
regular, periodic structure to form an
arrangement whereby each atom is
surrounded by 8 electrons.
• An individual atom consists of a
nucleus made up of a core of protons
(positively charged particles) and
neutrons (particles having no charge)
surrounded by electrons.
• The number of electrons and protons
is equal, such that the atom is overall
electrically neutral.
• The electrons occupy certain energy structure of a semiconductor
levels, based on the number of
electrons in the atom, which is different
for each element in the periodic table.
 Semiconductors
• The atoms in a semiconductor
are materials from either
group IV of the periodic table,
or from a combination of
group III & V (III-V
semiconductors), or II & VI (II-
VI semiconductors).
• Silicon (Si) is the most
commonly used
semiconductor material as it
forms the basis for integrated
circuit (IC) chips and is the
most mature technology. →
Most solar cells are also
silicon-based.
• Other common
semiconductors include Ge, Section from the periodic table -
GaAs, and CdTe. Most common semiconductor
materials shown in blue.
 Silicon (Si) Atom

• Most solar cells are made from

silicon (14th element). Silicon is a
"semi-conductor" or a "semi-metal,"
and has properties of both a metal
and an insulator.
• Silicon has 14 electrons. The
outermost four electrons, called
valence electrons, play a very
important role in the photoelectric
effect.
• In a crystalline solid, a silicon atom
shares each of its four valence
electrons with each of four
neighboring atoms.
 Bond Structure of Si
• The bond structure of a semiconductor determines
the material properties of a semiconductor.
– The electrons surrounding each atom in a semiconductor
are part of a covalent bond, (i.e., two atoms "sharing" a
single electron).
– The electrons in the covalent bond are held in place by
this bond and hence they are localized to the region
surrounding the atom. However, only at absolute zero
temperature are all electrons in a bonded arrangement
(insulator).
• At elevated temperatures, these electrons can gain enough
energy to escape from their bond (conductor).
• At room temperature, a semiconductor has enough free
electrons to allow it to conduct limited current (semiconductor).
 Band Gap
• The presence of the bond introduces two distinct
energy states for the electrons.
– The lowest energy position - bound state.
– If the electron has enough thermal energy to
break free of its bond, then it is in a - free
state.
• The electron cannot attain energy values
intermediate to these two levels; it is either at a
low energy position, or it has gained enough
energy to break free and therefore has a certain
minimum energy.
• This minimum energy is called the "band gap" of
a semiconductor.
• The space left behind by the electrons allows a
covalent bond to move from one electron to
another, thus appearing to be a positive charge
moving through the crystal lattice. This empty
space is commonly called a "hole", and is similar Formation of "free" electrons
to an electron, but with a positive charge. and holes when an electron
can escape its bond.
 Band Diagram
• Most important parameters of semiconductor
material for solar cell operation:
– the band gap;
– the number of free carriers (free electrons
and resulting holes) available for
conduction;
– the "generation" and “recombination” of
free carriers in response to light shining on
the material.
• The band gap of a semiconductor is the
minimum energy required to move an electron
from its bound state to a free state where it
can participate in conduction.
• The band structure of a semiconductor that
gives the energy of the electrons on the y-axis
and is called a "band diagram".
• The lower energy level of a semiconductor is
called the "valence band" and the energy level
at which an electron can be considered free is
called the "conduction band".
• The band gap is the distance between the
conduction band and valence band.
 Intrinsic Carrier Concentration
• The thermal excitation of electrons from
the valence band to the conduction band
creates free carriers in both bands. T0
• The concentration of these carriers in
intrinsic materials (semiconductor with no
added impurities) is called the intrinsic
carrier concentration, ni.
• ni is the number of electrons in the
conduction band or the number of holes
in the valence band in intrinsic material. T1> T0
• ni depends on the band gap and on the
temperature of the material.
– A large band gap will make it more
difficult for a carrier to be thermally
excited, hence ni is lower in higher band
gap materials.
– Alternatively, increasing the temperature
makes it more likely that an electron will T2> T1
be excited into the conduction band,
which will increase ni .
 Intrinsic Carrier Concentration

• At 300 K the generally accepted value for the intrinsic

carrier concentration of silicon, ni = 1.01 x 1010 /cm3 [1].
• An empirical fit to the measured data over the range 275
K to 375 K is given by:

where T is in deg. K.
• Question: find the intrinsic carrier concentration of Si at 25
°C and at 95 °F.
[K] = ([°F] + 459.67) × 5⁄9
[K] = [°C] + 273.15

[1] Sproul A.B., Green M.A., "Improved Value for the Silicon Intrinsic Carrier Concentration from 275 to 300K",
J. Appl. Physics., 70, 846-854 1991.
 Doping
• It is possible to shift the balance of
electrons and holes in a silicon crystal
lattice by "doping" it with impurities.
– Atoms with one more valence electron
than silicon (e.g., phosphorous) are
used to produce "n-type" material, which
adds electrons to the conduction band.
– Atoms with one less valence electron
(e.g. boron) result in "p-type" material
where the number of electrons trapped
in bonds is higher, thus increasing the
number of holes.
• In doped materials, there is always more of
one type of carrier than the other.
 Doping
• The type of carrier with the higher concentration is called a "majority
carrier", while the lower concentration carrier is called a "minority
carrier."
• In a typical doped semiconductor, there might be 1017/cm3 majority
carriers and 106/cm3 minority carriers.
• The ratio of minority to majority carriers is less than one person to the
entire population of the planet.
• Minority carriers are created either thermally or by incident photons.

N P
 Equilibrium Carrier Concentration
• The number of carriers in the conduction and valence
band with no externally applied energy source is
called the equilibrium carrier concentration.
• For majority carriers, the equilibrium carrier
concentration is equal to the intrinsic carrier
concentration plus the number of free carriers added
by doping the semiconductor.
• Under most conditions, the doping of the
semiconductor is several orders of magnitude greater
than the intrinsic carrier concentration, such that the
number of majority carriers is approximately equal to
that due to doping.
 Equilibrium Carrier Concentration
• At equilibrium, the product of
the majority and minority carrier Intrinsic material

concentration is constant, and

this is mathematically
expressed by the Law of Mass
Action:
Material doped
moderately with
group V

where ni is the intrinsic carrier

concentration and n0 and p0 are
the electron and hole Material heavily
equilibrium carrier doped with group V
concentrations.
 Absorption of Light
• Photons incident on the surface of a semiconductor
will be either reflected from the top surface, absorbed
in the material, or transmitted through the material.
• For photovoltaic devices, reflection and transmission
are typically considered loss mechanisms as photons
which are not absorbed do not generate power.
• If the photon is absorbed, it will raise an electron from
the valence band to the conduction band. A key factor
in determining if a photon is absorbed is the energy of
the photon.
• Photons falling onto a semiconductor material can be
divided into three groups based on their energy
compared to that of the semiconductor band gap:
 Absorption of Light
– Eph < EG : Photons with energy Eph less than the band gap
energy EG interact only weakly with the semiconductor, passing
through it as if it were transparent.
– Eph = EG : Photons have just enough energy to create an
electron hole pair and are efficiently absorbed.
– Eph > EG : Photons with energy greater than the band gap are
strongly absorbed.
• The number of light-generated majority carriers are often orders of
magnitude less than the number of majority carriers already
present in the solar cell due to doping. Hence, the number of
majority carriers in an illuminated semiconductor does not
alter significantly.
• The number of photo-generated minority carriers outweighs the
number of minority carriers existing in the solar cell in the dark.
Therefore, the number of minority carriers in an illuminated
solar cell can be approximated by the number of light
generated carriers.
 Absorption Depth
• Different wavelengths penetrate
different distances into a
semiconductor before most of the light
is absorbed.
• The absorption depth is a useful
parameter which gives the distance
into the material at which the light
drops to about 36% (or 1/e) of its
original intensity.
• High energy light (blue) is absorbed
within a few microns, while low energy
(red) is absorbed after a few hundred
microns. The blue photons are absorbed
very close to the surface but most
of the red photons are absorbed
deep in the device
Absorption depth of common semiconductor
materials (@ 300o K)
 Generation Rate
• The generation rate gives the number of electrons
generated at each point in the device due to the
absorption of photons.
• Neglecting reflection, the amount of light which is
absorbed by a material depends on the absorption
coefficient (in cm-1) and the thickness of the material.
• The intensity of light at any point in the device can be
calculated according to the equation below:

where α is the absorption coefficient (in cm-1),

x is the distance (in cm) into the material at which the light
intensity is being calculated; and I0 is the light intensity at
the top surface.
 Generation Rate
• Assuming that the loss in light intensity (i.e., the absorption of
photons) directly causes the generation of an electron-hole pair,
then the generation G in a thin slice of material is determined by
finding the change in light intensity across this slice.
• Consequently, differentiating the previous equation will give the
generation rate at any point in the device:
−αx
G = αI 0 e
where I0 = photon flux at the surface (photons/unit-area/sec.);
α = absorption coefficient; and x = distance into the material.
• For photovoltaic applications, the incident light consists of a
combination of many different wavelengths, and therefore the
generation rate at each wavelength is different. The net generation
is the sum of the generation for each wavelength.
 Generation Rate
• The generation as a function of cell depth for a standard solar
spectrum (AM 1.5) incident on a piece of silicon is shown below.
• Note: there is an enormously greater generation of electron-hole
pairs near the front surface of the cell, while further into the solar
cell the generation rate becomes nearly constant.
 Recombination
• Any electron which exists in the conduction
band is in a meta-stable state and will
eventually fall back to a lower energy position
in the valance band.
• When the electron falls back down into the
valence band, it removes a hole. This process
is called recombination.
 Surface Recombination
• Any defects or impurities at the surface of the
semiconductor promote recombination.
• Since the surface of the solar cell represents a
severe disruption of the crystal lattice, the surfaces
of the solar cell are a site of particularly high
recombination.
• The high recombination rate in the vicinity of a
surface depletes this region of minority carriers.
• A localized region of low carrier concentration
causes carriers to flow into this region from the
surroundings with higher concentration regions.
• Therefore, the surface recombination rate is limited
by the rate at which minority carriers move towards
the surface.
 Surface Recombination
• The defects at a semiconductor surface are caused by
the interruption to the periodicity of the crystal lattice,
which causes dangling bonds at the semiconductor
surface.
• The reduction of the number of dangling bonds, and
hence the recombination, is achieved by growing a
layer on top of the semiconductor surface which ties up
some of these dangling bonds. This reduction of
dangling bonds in known as surface passivation.