Semiconductor Physics

Dr Aynul Islam (Room A308)

Course Books
 “Semiconductor Physics & Devices: Basic Principles”, Donald A. Neamen, 3rd
Edition, McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
 “Semiconductor Devices: Physics and Technology”, S M Sze, 2nd Edition,
John Wiley
 “Materials Science for Engineers”, Anderson, Leaver, Leaver, and Rawlings,
5th Edition, CRC.

Assessment
Final Exam (2 hours) 65%
Mid-term Exam (2 hours) 10%
Lab work (Experimental) & report 25%
as a written assignments, homework
 Semiconductor Physics
Assessment Proposal
Experimental Work:
Hyanes Schockley, and Hall Effect

Lab 1: Four-probe measurement of

semiconductor resistivity
Lab 2: Minority Carrier Lifetime Measurement
of Single-Crystal Si Sample by the High
frequency Photoconductive Decay Method

Lab 3: Test and analysis of input and output

Characteristics of Schottky diode and PN diode devices

Lab 4: High frequency C-V test of MIS structure

Lab 5 Hall Effect

Writing Report:
You must ensure that it is clearly written and presented to a professional standard (in your own words). Also, you 2 need to
make sure all the figures used in the report are referenced. All references should be written in a scientific standard and are
consistent all the way through the report.
 Chapter 1: The Crystal Structure of Solids

1.1 Semiconductor Materials

1.2 Types of Solids
1.3 Space Lattices
1.3.1 Primitive and Unit Cell, 1.3.2 Basic Crystal Structures,
1.3.3 Crystal Planes and Miller Indices, 1.3.4 Directions in
Crystals
1.4 The Diamond Structure
1.5 Atomic Bonding
1.6 Imperfections and Impurities in Solids
1.6.1 Imperfections in Solids, 1.6.2 Impurities in Solids
1.7 Growth of Semiconductor Materials
1.7.1 Growth from a Melt, 1.7.2 Epitaxial Growth

Michael Tan 3
 Chapter 1: The Crystal Structure of Solids

In this chapter,

 You should be able to sketch the atomic arrangement of atoms

in the cubic lattices.

 You should be able to calculate the area and volume density of

atoms.

 You should be able to identify the principal crystal directions

and lattice planes in the cubic lattices.

 Briefly discuss diamond crystal structure several methods of

forming single-crystal semiconductor materials.

Michael Tan 4
 Semiconductor Materials
High Conductivity Low

Conductor/Metal Semiconductor Insulator

Elemental Compound

Group IV of periodic table Combinations of Group III and

Group V Elements
・ Silicon (Si), ・ Germanium ・ Binary: GaAs, AlAs,AlP,GaN, GaP,
(Ge) InP etc.
・ Carbon (C) ・ Ternary: AlGaAs, InGaAs, InGaP
etc.

Combinations of Group IV and

Group IV Elements
・ SiC, SiGe etc.

Silicon is the most common material

for ICs.
Michael Tan 5
 Semiconductor Materials
Valence electrons
Electrons that occupy the outermost shell  The
ones that interact with the outside world 
Many of the physical and chemical properties of
materials are based on these e  key role in
semiconductor.

Discrete closely spaced

energy levels

Empty Empty
conduction band conduction

Semiconductor
Empty
conduction band
Band gap
Metal

band
Band gap

Insulator
Filled valence
band Filled valence Filled valence
band band
6
 Types of Solids
Amorphous Poly-crystalline Single-crystalline
Have order only within a Have a high degree of Have a high degree of order
few atomic or molecular order over many atomic or regular geometric
dimensions. or molecular dimensions. periodicity, throughout the
entire volume of material.

Grain

Grain boundaries tend to Its electrical properties are

degrade the electrical superior to those of a
characteristics. non-single crystal material.
Michael Tan 7
 Space Lattices - Types of Unit Cell
The concern in this lecture will be the single crystal. A
representative unit, or group of atoms, is repeated at regular
intervals in each of the three dimensions to form the single crystal.
Crystal, any solid material in which the component atoms are
arranged in a definite pattern and whose surface regularity reflects
its internal symmetry.The periodic arrangement of atoms in the
crystal is called the lattice.
The structure of a crystal can be seen to be composed of a repeated
element in three dimensions. This repeated element is known as
the unit cell. It is the building block of the crystal structure.
There are two distinct types of unit cell: primitive and non-
primitive. Primitive unit cells contain only one lattice point, which
is made up from the lattice points at each of the corners. Non-
primitive unit cells contain additional lattice points, either on a
face of the unit cell or within the unit cell, and so have more than
one lattice point per unit cell. Michael Tan 8
Types of Unit Cell

Michael Tan 9
 Space Lattices - Types of Unit Cell
Primitive and Unit Cell
・ Lattice point: a representation of a particular atomic array by a
dot.
・ The simplest means of repeating an atomic array is by translation.
・ Two-dimensional lattice can be translated a distance a1 in one
direction and a distance b1 in a second noncolinear direction.
・ A third noncolinear translation will produce the three-dimensional
lattice.
・ The translation directions need notb2be perpendicular.
A
a2 b3
B

b1 b4 D a3

a1 b1 C a4
a1

Infinite two-dimensional Various possible two-

lattice dimensional lattice/ unit cell 10
・ We can see that single-crystal lattice is a periodic repetition of a group of
atoms. Therefore, we do not need to consider the entire lattice. We just need to
consider a fundamental unit.
・ A unit cell is a small volume of the crystal that can be used to reproduce the
entire crystal.
・ A primitive cell is the smallest unit cell that can
be repeated to form the lattice.
・ In many cases, it is more convenient to use a
unit cell that is not a primitive cell.
・ Unit cells may be chosen that have orthogonal
sides, whereas the sides of a primitive cell may be
nonorthogonal.
・ This figure shows a generalized 3-dimensional
unit cell.
A primitive unit cell

The position of the centre of an atom can be written as

   
r pa  qb  sc
where p, q and s are 11
 Basic Crystal Structures

(a) Simple cubic: an at (b) body-centered cubic (bcc): (c) face-centered cubic (fcc):
located at each corner. has an additional atom at the has additional atoms on each
center of the cube. face plane

By knowing the crystal structure of a material and its lattice dimensions, we can
determine several characteristics of the crystal. For example, we can determine
the
volume density of atoms.
Michael Tan 12
Basic Crystal Structures

body-centered cubic (bcc) – unit cell contains 2 atoms

face-centered cubic (fcc) – unit cell contains 4 atoms

Michael Tan 13
 Example 1.1: To find the volume density of atoms in a crystal that is a
body-centered cubic with a lattice constant a = 5 Å = 5 x 10 -8 cm.

Comment :
The volume density of atoms just calculated represents the order of magnitude
of density for most materials. The actual density is a function of the crystal type
and crystal structure since the packing density – number of atoms per unit cell-
depends on crystal structure.
Michael Tan 14
 Crystal Planes and Miller Indices
Surfaces, or planes through the crystal, can be described by considering the
intercepts of the plane along the a, b, c axes used to describe the lattice. Three
basic planes that are commonly considered in a cubic crystal are shown below .

(100) (110) (111)

Fig.(a): The plane is parallel to the axes, so the intercepts are given as p = 1, q =
infinity and s = infinity. Taking the reciprocal, we obtain the Miller indices as
(1,0,0), so the plane is referred to as the (100) plane.
Note: Any plane parallel to the one shown in Fig. (a) and separated by an integral
number of lattice constants is equivalent and is referred to as the (100) plane. One
advantage to taking the reciprocal of the intercepts to obtain the Miller indices is
that the use of infinity is avoided when describing a plane that is parallel to an 15
 Crystal Planes and Miller Indices

Suppose, the intercepts of

the plane correspond to p =
2, q = 3, and s = 1. Now
write the
reciprocals of the
intercepts, which gives (1/2.
1/3, 1/1).
Multiply by the lowest
common denominator,
which in this case is 6, to
obtain (3, 2, 6). The
plane is then referred to as
the (326) plane or as Miller
Indices [326].
 Crystal Direction
The direction can be expressed as a set of three integers which are the
components of a vector in that direction. For example, the body diagonal in a
simple cubic lattice is composed of a vector components 1,1,1. The body diagonal
is then described as the [111] direction.

(100) (110) (111)

Note: The brackets are used to designate direction as distinct from the
parentheses used for the crystal planes. In the simple cubic lattices, the [hkl]
direction is perpendicular to the (hkl) plane. This perpendicularity may not be
true in noncubic lattices.
Michael Tan 17
 Diamond Structure
Silicon and Germanium are two examples of semiconductor
materials that have a diamond crystal structure. A unit cell of the
diamond structure is more complicated than the simple cubic
structures.

The tetrahedral structure of closest

A unit cell of diamond structure neighbors in the diamond lattice.
An important characteristic of the diamond lattice is that any atom within the
diamond structure will have four nearest neighboring atoms. The diamond
structure refers to the particular lattice in which all atoms are of the same species
18
such as silicon or germanium.
 The Zincblende Structure
The zincblende structure differs from the diamond structure only in
that there are two different types of atoms in the lattice. Compound
semiconductors, such gallium arsenide (GaAs) have the zincblende
structure. Note: The atoms in both the diamond and zincblende
structures are joined together to form a tetrahedron.

A unit cell of zincblende structure.

Michael Tan
Example: GaAs lattice 19
 Atomic Bonding
The type of bond, or interaction, between atoms depends on the
particular atom or atoms in the crystal. If there is not a strong bond
between atoms, they will not “stick together” to create a solid.
(i) Ionic Bonding: A coulomb interaction between oppositely
charged ions. Example: Sodium chloride (NaCl), materials of
Group I and VII.
(ii) Covalent Bonding: Sharing of electrons between two atoms, so
that in effect the valence energy shell of each atoms is full, materials
of Group IV.
(iii) Metallic Bonding: The third major atomic bonding scheme is referred
to as metallic bonding . Group I elements have one valence electron. If two
sodium atoms (Z =11), for example, are brought into proximity, the valence
electrons interact in a way like that in covalent bonding.

(iv) Van der Waals Bonding: A fourth type of atomic bond, called the Van
der
Waals bond, is the weakest of the chemical bonds. A hydrogen fluoride (HF)
20
 Imperfections and Impurities in Solids
In a real crystal, the lattice is not perfect. It contains imperfections (defects) and
impurities. Imperfections (defects), that is, the perfect geometric periodicity is
disrupted in some manner. Imperfections tend to alter the electrical properties of
a material.
Imperfections in Solids

(i) Lattice Vibrations: due to thermal energy which is a function of temperature.

(ii) Point Defects

Vacancy Interstitial

(a) Vacancy
(b) Interstitial
21
 Imperfections and Impurities in Solids
(iii) Line Defects
(a) Line dislocation
Line Dislocation

Effects of defects:
・ Disruption of the normal geometric periodicity of
the lattice and the ideal atomic bonds in the crystal.
・ The change of electrical properties of materials.

Impurities in Solids

Interstitial
Substitutional Impurity

Impurity

Michael Tan 22
 Growth of Semiconductor Materials
Success in fabricating very large scale
integrated (VLSI) circuits / ultra large
Container
scale integrated (ULSI) circuits is a result
Chuck
of pure single-crystal Semiconductor
materials. Presently, Silicon, has
concentrations of most impurities of less Seed Tube

than 1 part in 1010 billion. To get high

Crystal
purity of semiconductor materials, we
Melt
need; Heater
(i) Extreme care in the growth
processes, Crucible
(ii) High growth technologies,
(iii) Extreme care at each step of the
fabrication processes.
(1) Growth from a Melt
A common technique for growing single
crystal materials such as silicon, is called
“Czochralski” and Float-Zone method.

Michael Tan 23
 (2) Epitaxial Growth
Epitaxial growth is a process whereby a thin, single-crystal layer of
material is grown on the surface of a single-crystal substrate.

Epitaxial layer(AlGaAs) Epitaxial layer (Si)

Substrate (GaAs) Substrate (Si)

Heteroepitaxial Growth Homoepitaxial Growth

Epitaxial Growth Technique

(i) Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)

(ii) Liquid Phase Epitaxy (LPE)

(iii) Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE)

(iv) Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE)/ Metal Organic

Chemical Vapor Epitaxy (MOCVD)
Michael Tan 24
Michael Tan 25
Summary
・ A few of the most common semiconductor materials were listed.
Silicon is the most common semiconductor material.

・ The properties of semiconductors and other materials are determined to a

large extent by the single-crystal lattice structure. The unit cell is a small volume
of the crystal that is used to reproduce the entire crystal. Three basic unit cells
are the simple cubic, body-centered cubic (bcc) and face-centered cubic (fcc).

・ Silicon has the diamond crystal structure. Atoms are formed in a tetrahedral
configuration with four nearest neighbor atoms. The binary semiconductors have
a zincblende lattice, that is basically the same as the diamond lattice.

・ Miller indices are used to describe planes in a crystal lattice. These planes may
be used to describe the surface of a semiconductor material. The Miller indices
are also used to describe directions in a crystal.

・ Imperfections do exist in semiconductor materials. A few of these imperfections

are vacancies, substitutional impurities, and interstitial impurities. Small amounts
of controlled substitutional impurities can favorably alter semiconductor properties.

Michael Tan 26
Summary (cont.)

・ A brief description of semiconductor growth methods was given. Bulk growth

produces the starting semiconductor material or substrate. Epitaxial growth
can be used to control the surface properties of a semiconductor.

・ Most semiconductor devices are fabricated in the epitaxial layer.

Glossary of Important Terms

Binary semiconductor Epitaxial layer Zincblende Lattice
Ternary semiconductor Ion Implantation Wurtzite Lattice

Covalent Bonding Lattice Diamond Lattice

Ion Bonding Miller Indices

Doping Primitive Cell

Elemental semiconductor Unit Cell

Compound semiconductor Substrate

Michael Tan 27
Exercise 1 – Crystal Planes and Miller Indices
The vector of this three dimensional crystal is
given as

r  pa  qb  sc
The intercept of the plane correspond to
p 3, q 2 and s 1
The reciprocals of the intercepts is
 1 1 1
 , , 
 3 2 1
Multiply by the lowest common denominator,
6 to obtain (2, 3, 6). The plane is referred
as (236) plane

Michael Tan 28
Exercise 2 – Crystal Planes and Miller Indices

Describe the lattice plane shown in Figure 1.7

r  pa  qb  sc
The intercept of the plane correspond to
p 1, q 2 and s 2
The reciprocals of the intercepts is
1 1 1 
 , , 
1 2 2
Multiply by the lowest common denominator,
2 to obtain (2, 1, 1). The plane is referred
as (211) plane

Michael Tan 29
Exercise 3 – Crystal Planes and Miller Indices
・ Determine the Miller indices for the planes shown below
The vector of this three dimensional crystal is
given as

r  pa  qb  sc
The intercept of the plane correspond to
p 1, q 3 and s 1
The reciprocals of the intercepts is
1 1 1
 , , 
 1 3 1
Multiply by the lowest common denominator,
3 to obtain (3, 1, 3). The plane is referred
as (313) plane

Michael Tan 30
Exercise 4 – Crystal Planes and Miller Indices
・ Determine the Miller indices for the planes shown below
The vector of this three dimensional crystal is
given as

r  pa  qb  sc
The intercept of the plane correspond to
p 4, q 2 and s 4
The reciprocals of the intercepts is
1 1 1
 , , 
 4 2 4
Multiply by the lowest common denominator,
4 to obtain (1, 2, 1). The plane is referred
as (121) plane

Michael Tan 31
 Exercise 5 – Find the Surface Density at (110) plane

The number of atoms

per lattice plane is
1 4 x 4+1= 2

a1 = 5 x 10-10 m or 5 x 10-8cm

The surface density of atoms is then found as

# of atoms per lattice plane
Surface density =
area of lattice plane
2 2 -14 2
= =  5.66 x 10 atom/cm
 
a1  a1 2 5 x 10  2
-8 2
 
Michael Tan 32
 Packing Density

Assume that the atoms are closely packed and that they
can be treated as hard spheres

Volume of atom
Packing Density 
Volume of unit cell

Michael Tan 33
 Diagonal

There are two types of diagonal used in the calculation

Michael Tan 34
 Make the atom expand

Space filling simple cubic technique will be used

Michael Tan 35
 Exercise 6 – Find the packing density for Simple Cube

Simple cubic lattice: a 2r

Unit cell vol a 3 2r  8r 3
3

 4 r 3 
1 atom per cell, so atom vol 1 
 3 

 4 r 3 
 
Volume of atom 3
Packing Density    100% 52.4%
Volume of unit cell 8r 3

Michael Tan 36
Exercise 7 – Find the packing density for FCC

Face  centered cubic lattice:

d
d 4r a 2  a  2 2 r
2

 
3
3
Unit cell vol a  2 2 r 16 2 r 3
 4 r 3 
4 atom per cell, so atom vol 4  
 3 

 4 r 3 
4   
Volume of atom 3
Packing Density     100% 74%
Volume of unit cell 16 2 r 3
Michael Tan 37
Exercise 8 – Find the packing density for BCC

Body  centered cubic lattice

4
d 4r a 3  a  r
3
3
 4 
3
Unit cell vol a  r 
 3 
 4 r 3 
2 atom per cell, so atom vol 2  
 3 

 4 r 3 
2   
3
Packing Density   3
 100% 68%
 4r 
 
 3 

Michael Tan 38
Exercise 9 – Find the packing density for Diamond CC

The diamond lattice can be

considered to be formed by
interpenertrating two fcc
lattices along the body
diagonal by (1/4)th cube edge

One sublattices has its origin

at point (0,0,0) and the other
at a point quarter of the way
along the body diagonal (at
the point a/4, a/4, a/4)

Michael Tan 39
 Exercise 9 – Find the packing density for Diamond CC

One sublattices has its

origin at point (0,0,0)
and the other at a point
quarter of the way along
the body diagonal (at the
point a/4, a/4, a/4)
Michael Tan 40
Exercise 9 – Find the packing density for Diamond CC

Diamond cubic lattice. The radius of the atom is

determind by considering a corner atom, which
touches with an atom lying along the body diagonal.
This body diagonal lies at a distance 1/4 of the BD
from the corner atom. therefore
1
2r  x length of the Body diagonal
4
8
Body diagonal BD 8r a 3  a  r
3

Michael Tan 41
 Exercise 9 – Find the packing density for Diamond CC

8
Body diagonal BD 8r a 3  a  r
3
3
3 8r 
Unit cell vol a  
 3 
 4 r 3 
8 atom per cell, so atom vol 8  
 3 

 4 r 3 
8 
Volume of atom 3
Packing Density    3
 100% 34%
Volume of unit cell  8r 
 
 3 

Michael Tan 42
Summary

Michael Tan 43
Exercise 10 – Find the surface density of atoms for (100)
plane of face-centered-cubic structure where a=4.25 A

# of atoms per lattice plane

Surface Density 
area of lattice plane

1
Number of atoms per 100  plane 1  4  2
4
2 2
Surface Density  2 
a 4.25 10 
8 2

1.111015atom/cm 2

Michael Tan 44
Exercise 11 – Find the surface density of atoms for (110)
plane of face-centered-cubic structure where a=4.25 A

# of atoms per lattice plane

Surface Density 
area of lattice plane

1 1
Number of atoms per 110  plane 2   4  2
2 4
2 2
Surface Density  
 
a a2 
4.25 10  2
8 2

7.83 1014atom/cm 2

Michael Tan 45
 n-type and p-type Semiconductors
 Controlled doping of a semiconductor with Donors impurities
makes it an n-type extrinsic semiconductor
 Donor impurities contribute to electron only, making the
material n-type
 Donors become positively charge
 Electrons are dominant, and holes are in small concentrations.

 Controlled doping of a semiconductor with

Accepters impurities makes it an p-type extrinsic
semiconductor
 Accepters impurities contribute to holes only,
making the material p-type 46
 Accepters become negatively charged