BITS Pilani

presentation
BITS Pilani Prof. Kranthi Kumar Palavalasa
Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Pilani Campus
 BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

MEL ZG512, Optoelectronic

Devices, Circuit & Systems
Lecture No-1.
 Text Book(s)

Pallab Bhattacharya, “Semiconductor Optoelectronic Devices,” 2nd edition, Pearson

A. Yariv and P. Yeh , “Photonics - Optical Electronics in Modern Communications,”

Reference Book(s) & other resources

S. O. Kasap, “Optoelectronics and Photonics: Principles and Practices,” Prentice-Hall,

2001.

B. Streetman and S. Banerjee, “Solid State Electronic Devices,” 6th edition,

Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2006

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Evaluation Scheme:

No Name Type Duration Weight Day, Date, Session, Time

EC-1 Assignment-1 Open 10% September 1-10, 2023
Book
Assignment-2 Open 10% October 1-10, 2023
Book
Assignment-2 Open 10% November 1-10, 2023
Book
EC-2 Mid-Semester Test Open 2 hours 25% 23/09/2023 (Evening)
Book
EC-3 Comprehensive Exam Open 3 hours 45% 25/11/2023 (Evening)
Book

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Introduction
Optoelectronic devices:
- Deal with interaction of electronic process with light and optical processes
- Energy conversion process
- Made with Semi-conductors.

Elemental semiconductors:
- Si, Ge, ..etc.
- indirect bandgap,
- Emit light poorly and low absorption coefficitetns
- low electric-optics conversion efficiency

Compound semiconductors
- Offer many of the desired properties.
- Could be synthesized easily.
- III-V (e.g. GaN, GaAs), II-VI
- direct bandgap, high electric-optics conversion efficiency
- III-V compound SCs first and mostly used.

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 - Compound SC, represented by AIIIBV has the same average number of valance electrons per
atom as Si.

Indium antimonide (InSb)

- First III-V compound SC. [1950].
- Easy of synthesizing
- Electron mobility and ionic component in the crystal binding.
- Adv. Epitaxial techniques led to the improvement of purity of crystals.
- Low band gap [Eg = 0.17eV] imp. For far infrared detector technology.

GaAs, InP
- Invention of SC LASER and Gunn effect.
- higher mobility than Si, Ge,
- energy band gap, Eg: 1.43 (GaAs), 1.35 (InP)
- most common substrate, used to grow up compound semiconductors
- direct bandgap and consequent high radiative efficiency make them important optoelectronic
materials.

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Electron energy band
diagram v.s. wave number

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Energy bandgap v.s. lattice
constant

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Bonding in solids
Van der Waals bonding:
Characterized by formation of dipoles. Atoms and their electrons form dipoles, which interact with other
dipoles giving rise to small attractive force.
e.g.: inert gas, like Ar

Ionic bonding:
One of the atomic constituents yields an outer shell electron to other atom. produces
positive and negative ions, which attract each other by Coulomb-type interactions
e.g. NaCl, KCl

covalent bonding
sharing of electrons between neighboring atoms. This type of bonding is found in all organic compounds
and nearly all semiconductors.
e.g.: elemental and compound semiconductors, H2 molecule.

Metallic bonding:
valence electrons are shared by many atoms (bonding not directional, electron
free or nearly free contributed to conductivity)
e.g.: Zn

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Unit cells and the description of
crystal structures
A crystal of an element or compound can be
regarded as constructed from regularly repeating
structural elements, which may be atoms, molecules,
or ions.

(a)Lattices and unit cells

The crystal lattice is the symmetrical three-
dimensional structural arrangements of atoms, ions
or molecules (constituent particle) inside a crystalline
solid as points.

It can be defined as the geometrical arrangement of

the atoms, ions or molecules of the crystalline solid as
points in space. The lattice defines the basic repeating
structure of the crystal.

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Characteristics of Crystal
Lattice
• In a crystal lattice, each atom, molecule or ions (constituent particle) is
represented by a single point.
• These points are called lattice site or lattice point.
• Lattice sites or points are together joined by a straight line in a crystal lattice.
• When we connect these straight lines we can get a three-dimensional view of the
structure.
• This 3D arrangement is called Crystal Lattice also known as Bravais Lattices.

The crystal structure itself is obtained by associating one or more identical

structural units (such as molecules or ions) with each lattice point.

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Atomic arrangement in
different solids

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A unit cell of the crystal is an imaginary parallel-sided region (a ‘parallelepiped’)
from which the entire crystal can be built up by purely translational
displacements
Unit Cell is the smallest part (portion) of a crystal lattice. It is the simplest
repeating unit in a crystal structure. The entire lattice is generated by the
repetition of the unit cell in different directions.

Unit cells may be chosen in a variety of ways but it is generally preferable to

choose the smallest cell that exhibits the greatest symmetry

Two possible choices of

repeating unit are shown but
(b) would be preferred to (a)
because it is smaller.

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Parameters of a Unit Cell

The angles (, β, ) and lengths (a, b, c) used to define the size and shape
of a unit cell are the unit cell parameters (the ‘lattice parameters’)

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All ordered structures adopted by compounds belong to one of the following
seven crystal systems.

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Types of Unit Cell

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Primitive Unit Cell
A primitive unit cell (denoted by the symbol P) has just one lattice point in the
unit cell, and the translational symmetry present is just that on the repeating
unit cell.

Lattice points describing the translational

symmetry of a primitive cubic unit cell.

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• Rare due to low packing density (only Po has this structure)
• Close-packed directions are cube edges.

• Coordination # = 6
(# nearest neighbors)

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Atomic Packing Factor
(APF)
Volume of atoms in unit cell*
APF =
Volume of unit cell
*assume hard spheres
• APF for a simple cubic structure = 0.52
volume
atoms atom
a 4
unit cell 1 (0.5a) 3
3
R=0.5a APF =
a3 volume
close-packed directions
unit cell
contains 8 x 1/8 = 1 atom/unit cell
Adapted from Fig. 3.24,
Callister & Rethwisch 8e.
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Body Centered Cubic
Structure (BCC)
body-centred (I, from the German word innenzentriet, referring to the lattice
point at the unit cell centre) with two lattice points in each unit cell, and
additional translational symmetry beyond that of the unit cell

Lattice points describing the translational

symmetry of a body-centred cubic unit cell.

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Body Centered Cubic
Structure (BCC)
• Atoms touch each other along cube diagonals.
--Note: All atoms are identical; the center atom is shaded
differently only for ease of viewing.

ex: Cr, W, Fe (), Tantalum, Molybdenum

• Coordination # = 8

Adapted from Fig. 3.2,

Click once on image to start animation Callister & Rethwisch 8e.
(Courtesy P.M. Anderson)
2 atoms/unit cell: 1 center + 8 corners x 1/8
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Atomic Packing Factor:
BCC
• APF for a body-centered cubic structure = 0.68
3a

2a

Close-packed directions:
Adapted from R length = 4R = 3 a
Fig. 3.2(a), Callister &
Rethwisch 8e.
a
atoms volume
4
unit cell 2  ( 3a/4) 3
3 atom
APF =
volume
a3
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Face Centred Cubic
Structure (FCC)
face-centred (F) with four lattice points in each unit cell, and additional
translational symmetry beyond that ofthe unit cell

Lattice points describing the translational

symmetry of a face-centred cubic unit cell.

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Face Centered Cubic
Structure (FCC)
• Atoms touch each other along face diagonals.
--Note: All atoms are identical; the face-centered atoms are shaded
differently only for ease of viewing.

ex: Al, Cu, Au, Pb, Ni, Pt, Ag

• Coordination # = 12

Adapted from Fig. 3.1, Callister & Rethwisch 8e.

Click once on image to start animation
(Courtesy P.M. Anderson) 4 atoms/unit cell: 6 face x 1/2 + 8 corners x 1/8

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Atomic Packing Factor:
FCC
• APF for a face-centered cubic structure = 0.74
maximum achievable APF
Close-packed directions:
length = 4R = 2 a
2a
Unit cell contains:
6 x 1/2 + 8 x 1/8
= 4 atoms/unit cell
a
Adapted from
Fig. 3.1(a),
Callister & atoms volume
Rethwisch 8e. 4 3
unit cell 4 ( 2a/4)
3 atom
APF =
3 volume
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Crystallographic Planes
There is a need to form a basis that will enable us to refer to planes and directions
within the lattices. This is made possible by the Miller indices.

Miller Indices: Derived on the basis of a rectangular Cartesian coordinate system.

Miller Indices are reciprocals of the (three) axial intercepts for a plane, cleared of
fractions & common multiples.

Parallel planes within a crystal have the same crystallographic directions and the
same Miller indices.

Algorithm
1. Read off intercepts of plane with axes in terms of a, b, c
2. Take reciprocals of intercepts
3. Reduce to smallest integer values
4. Enclose in parentheses, no commas i.e., (hkl)

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 z
example a b c
1. Intercepts 1 1  c
2. Reciprocals 1/1 1/1 1/
1 1 0
3. Reduction 1 1 0 y
a b
4. Miller Indices (110)
x
z
example a b c
1. Intercepts 1/2   c
2. Reciprocals 1/½ 1/ 1/
2 0 0
3. Reduction 2 0 0
y
4. Miller Indices (100) a b
x
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 z
example a b c c
1. Intercepts 1/2 1 3/4 
2. Reciprocals 1/½ 1/1 1/¾
2 1 4/3  y

3. Reduction 6 3 4 a b

4. Miller Indices (634) x

Family of Planes {hkl}

Ex: {100} = (100), (010), (001), (100), (010), (001)

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Crystallographic Planes

Adapted from Fig. 3.10,

Callister & Rethwisch 8e.

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Reciprocal Lattice Vectors
To express periodic properties of crystal.

If a, b and c are direct lattice vectors and basis vectors of the primitive cell.
Then Reciprocal Lattice a*, b*, c* by

The direct and reciprocal Lattice vectors are related by Kronecker delta function i.e,
And

The set of reciprocal Lattice vectors define a reciprocal lattice is defined by

And r* is normal to the [hkl] plane.

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