Crystal Structure of Solids

• Semiconductor materials
• Types of solids
• Space lattices
• Unit cells
• Crystal structures
• Crystal planes, directions
• Zincblende structure (GaAs)
• Diamond structure (Si, Ge)
• Atomic bonding
• Imperfection in solids
• Impurities in solids
• Growth of semiconductor materials
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 Semiconductor Materials
• Elemental semiconductors: group IV
p
• Compound semiconductors: III-V,, II-VI,, IV-IV

3 4 5 valence e-
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 Types of Solids
• 3 types of crystals:
 Amorphous: disorder
 Polycrystalline: locally periodic, grain boundary

 Single crystal: periodic

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Space
p Lattices,, Unit Cells
• Lattice: periodic arrangement of atoms in
the crystal
• Lattice point
• Unit cells: reproduce the entire crystal
• Primitive cell: the smallest unit cell (C, D)

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 Unit Cell vs. Lattice

everyy lattice point:

p
, , : vectors
p, q, s: integers
g
magnitude of , , : lattice constants of unit cell
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 Basic Crystal Structures
• 3 lattice types:
 Simple cubic (sc)

 Body-centered cubic (bcc)

 Face-centered cubic (fcc)

a: lattice constant
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 Volume Density
y of Atoms
* Example: if a = 5 A (0.5 nm) below, volume density of atoms = ?

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 Crystal Planes, Miller Indices
• intercepts of the plane to at p0 , at q0 , at s0
( p0 , 1/qq0 , 1/s0)  ((h, k, l):
(1/p ) (h
( k l)) plane
p
(1/3, 1/2, 1/1)  (2, 3, 6): (2 3 6) plane
(1, 1/∞, 1/∞)  (1, 0, 0): (1 0 0) plane
(1, 1, 1/∞)  (1, 1, 0): (1 1 0) plane
(1, 1, 1)  (1, 1, 1): (1 1 1) plane
* h, k, l: Miller indices

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 Surface Density
y of Atoms
* Example: if a1 = 5 A below, surface density of atoms in (110)
plane = ?

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 Crystal Planes vs. Device
* crystal plane affects:
surface density of atoms,
crystal
t l growth
th rate,
t
defect,
device pperformance,, …

ID-VD characteristics of p-channel MOSFETs on (a) Si(100) and (b) Si(110) surfaces.
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 Crystal
y Planes vs. Directions
• (h k l) plane
• [h k l] direction
di i
• In sc lattice, [h k l] direction ⊥ (h k l) plane

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 Zincblende (ZnS) Structure
• GaAs, SiC, ZnS, … compound semiconductors
– lattice: fcc
– basis: As at (000), Ga at (¼ ¼ ¼)
– 4 neighbor atoms

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* lattice: fcc

* basis: As at (000) + Ga at (¼ ¼ ¼)

crystal structure = lattice + basis

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 Diamond Structure
• Si, Ge, C, …elemental semiconductors
– lattice: fcc
– basis: Si at (000) + (¼ ¼ ¼)
– 4 neighbor atoms

for Si,
a = 5.43A
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 Atomic Bonding
g
• Ionic bond
• Covalent bonding: e- being shared between atoms
• Metallic bonding
• Van der Waals bond

Si, Ge
SiC,, GaAs,, ZnS

H: Z = 1, 1s1 Si: Z = 14, 1s22s22p63s23p2

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 Imperfections in Solids
• Lattice vibrations
• Point
o defect
de ec
• Vacancy
• Interstitial
• Frenkel defect
• Line dislocation
=> change the electrical property of the material

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 Imperfections in Solids vs. Device
* Interface state: anneal; gas, Temp, time, …

physics +
material +
technology

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 Impurities in Solids
• 2 types:
 Substitutional impurities: at lattice sites
 Interstitial
I t titi l impurities:
i iti between
b t lattice
l tti sites
it
• Source
 Unintentional
U i t ti l semiconductor: ρ variable
 Intentional (Doping): thermal diffusion, ion implantation

=> change the electrical property of the material

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 Growth of Semiconductor Materials
• Growth from a melt: (1425 oC for Si)
 Czochralski (Cz) method: Si rod => cut into Si wafers

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 Growth of Semiconductor Materials
• Epitaxial growth
 Homoepitaxy: Si on Si, …
 Heteroepitaxy: SiO2 on Si, …

* Method:
Chemical vapor-phase deposition (CVD)
Liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE)
Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)

physics + material + technology

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