Si

covalent bond
 Intrinsic Semiconductors
Intrinsic Semiconductor and the Electron-Hole Pair
A pure semiconductor is known as intrinsic semiconductor.
 An intrinsic semiconductor is a pure semiconductor.
 At T = 0 K, there are no free electrons in a pure semiconductor.
At T>0 K, some electrons in the valence band receives enough energy and move
into the conduction band.
The excited electrons leave behind empty or unoccupied states, called Holes.
Thus electron-hole pairs (EHP) are created.
Since the electrons and holes are created in pairs, the concentration of electrons
(n) in the conduction band is equal to concentration of holes (p) in the valence
band.

n  p  ni ni is called the intrinsic carrier concentration.

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 Intrinsic Semiconductors
Intrinsic Semiconductor and the Electron-Hole pair

- Electron-hole pairs in pure Si at

temperature T > 0 K.
+

- = free electron
5
 Intrinsic Semiconductors
Commonly accepted value of ni (T = 300 K)
For a given semiconductor material at a constant temperature,
the value of the intrinsic carrier concentration ni is a constant.

Material Eg (eV) ni (cm-3)

Germanium 0.7 2.4×1013
Silicon 1.12 1.5×1010
Gallium Arsenide 1.42 1.8×106
Silicon Carbide 2.2 20
Silicon Carbide - a 2.9 3.0×10-5

Note the strong dependence of ni on the band gap energy Eg.

Since silicon has about 5×1022 atoms/cm3, then ni represents
about only 1 ionization in 1012 sites!

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 Extrinsic Semiconductors
Extrinsic Semiconductor and Doping:
 One way to increase carrier concentration in
semiconductors is introduce impurities or foreign elements.
The process is called Doping and the doped
semiconductors are known as Extrinsic.
 By doping, a semiconductor can have predominance of
either electrons or holes. So there are two type of extrinsic
semiconductors: n-type (mostly electrons) and p-type
(mostly holes)
 Group V elements have 5 valence electrons. 4 of them
form covalent bond with 4 silicon atoms, leaving the 5th
loosely bound to the phosphorous atom.
 The 5th electron is referred to as the donor electron.
 If a small amount of energy, such as, thermal energy will
enable the donor electron, to overcome its coulombic
binding to the impurity atom and be donated to the lattice.
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 Extrinsic Semiconductors
Doping with Group V Elements: n-type

Si Si
- -
P P+

Two-dimensional representation of silicon lattice doped with

phosphorous atom.

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 Extrinsic Semiconductors
Doping with Group V Elements: n-type
 This type of impurity atom
donates an electron for
conduction and so is called a
Si donor impurity atom.
-  Every donor impurity atom
adds an electron to the
conduction band without creating
P+ holes in the valence band.
 As almost all the donor atoms
are ionized at room temperature,
the concentration of electrons is
much larger than the
concentration of holes. The
resulting material is referred to as
an n-type semiconductor.
The number of electrons is almost equal to the number of donor
atoms:
n ≈ Nd >> p 9
 Extrinsic Semiconductors
Doping with Group III Elements: p-type
 Group III elements, such as, Boron (B) has three valence
electrons. When added to the silicon lattice, it can form covalent
bond with only three neighboring silicon atoms, leaving the fourth
one incomplete.
 A valence band electron may gain sufficient energy to
momentarily occupy the site leaving behind a vacancy in the
valence band, that is a hole.
 The hole can move thru the crystal generating a current, while
the negatively charged boron atom is fixed in the crystal. This
impurity atom is called an acceptor impurity atom.
 The acceptor atoms generate holes in the valence band without
generating electrons in the conduction band.
 The hole concentration is thus much larger than the electron
concentration and the resulting material is a p-type semiconductor.

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 Extrinsic Semiconductors
Doping with Group III Elements: p-type

Si Si
hole

B B

The number of holes is almost equal to the number of acceptor

atoms:
p ≈ Na >> n
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 Extrinsic Semiconductors
Majority and Minority Carriers
 Extrinsic semiconductors are either p-type or n-type. However,
both electrons and holes are present in either of them and they both
participate in current conduction and, therefore, are known as the
charge carriers.
 For an n-type material at thermal equilibrium, electron
concentration is much much larger than the hole concentration, i.e.,

n0  p0 , for an n - type material

In such a case, electrons are called the majority carriers and holes
are the minority carriers.

 For a p-type material at thermal equilibrium, hole concentration is

much much larger than the electron concentration, i.e.,
p0  n0 , for a p - type material
In such a case, are holes called the majority carriers and electrons
are the minority carriers.
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 Reflections
• What are the main features of a
semiconductor?
 What is the difference between holes and
ions in a semiconductor?
 What are their sources?
 Carrier Transport: Drift
Drift and Diffusion
The net flow of electrons and holes generate currents.
The process by which these charged particles move is called
Carrier Transport.
In this chapter we will consider the two basic transport
mechanisms in a semiconductor crystal:
- Drift – the movement of charge due to electric fields.
- Diffusion – the flow of charge due to density gradients.

Carrier Drift
An electric field applied to a semiconductor will produce a force on
electrons and holes so that they will experience a net acceleration
and net movement.
This net movement of charge due to an electric field is called drift.
The net drift of charge gives rise to a drift current.
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 Carrier Transport: Drift
• The flow of ”holes” within a solid–state material is, in all respects, equivalent to a
flow of positive charge carriers.
• They are identical to the concept of a flux of bubbles, which are a flow of
negative (absence of) matter, but do not exist unless the space is the ’filled’ solid or
liquid molecular environment.
• Because of their mobility, the ”holes” in the valence band are just like electrons in
the conduction band, except they fall in the opposite direction of that of the
electrons when subject to the drift force of an electric field.

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