B.Tech.

I year, I sem 2020-21

Engineering Physics

M AT E R I A L S C I E N C E A N D S E M I C O N D U C T O R
PHYSICS

Delivered by:

Dr. Vivek Kumar Jain

Assistant Professor
Department of Physics
Career Point University Kota
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 ENERGY BAND IN SOLIDS-

In a single isolated atom, the electrons in each orbit have definite energy
associated with it. But in case of solids all the atoms are close to each other,
so the energy levels of outermost orbit electrons are affected by the
neighboring atoms.
When two single or isolated atoms are bring close to each other then the
outermost orbit electrons of two atoms interacts or shared with each other.
i.e, the electrons in the outermost orbit of one atom experience an attractive
force from the nearest or neighboring atomic nucleus. Due to this the
energies of the electrons will not be in same level, the energy levels of
electrons are changed to a value which is higher or lower than that of the
original energy level of the electron.
The electrons in same orbit exhibits different energy levels. The grouping
of this different energy levels is called energy band.
However, the energy levels of inner orbit electrons are not much affected
by the presence of neighboring atoms.
FORMATION OF ENERGY BAND….

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 FORMATION OF ENERGY BAND….

Consider example of Si atom. Electronic configuration of Si atom is 1s2

2s2 2p6 3s2 3p2 (Atomic No. is 14).

Energy Band

3p
3s

2p
Potential 2s
Energy
1s

Nucleus
Position
FORMATION OF ENERGY BAND…

6N energy states
(2N occupied &
4N vacant)

2N occupied
energy
states
 FORMATION OF ENERGY BAND…

Let us consider that N atoms comes close to each other, they begin to influence each
other. Each of N atoms has its own energy levels. The energy levels are identical, sharp,
discrete and distinct.
➤ r = d ( a )
There is no interaction and each atom in the crystal behaves as free atom. If N atoms
are considered in silicon crystal, then there will be 2N electrons filling 2N possible
energy states in 3s, 6N possible energy states in 3p of which only 2N are completely.
 crd
There is no visible splitting of energy levels but there develops a tendency for the
splitting of energy levels.
➤ r=c
The interaction between the outermost shell electrons of neighboring silicon atoms
becomes appreciable. The energy of electrons of each atom starts changing,whereas
the energy of electrons in inner shell do not change.
➤ brc
The energy levels get slightly changed and instead of a single 3s or 3p levels, we get
large number of closely packed levels. This collection of closely spaced energy levels
is called an energy band.
 r=b
The energy gap between 3s and 3p completely disappears and the 8N energy states are
(2N of 3s and 6N of 3p) distributed continuously out of which 4N energy states are filled
and 4N energy states are empty.
➤ r=a
The band of 4N filled energy states is separated from the band of 4N unfilled energy
states by an energy gap called forbidden gap or energy gap or band gap.
The lower completely filled band (with valence electrons) is called the valence band and
the upper unfilled band is called the conduction band.
 CLASSIFICATION OF SOLIDS
(BASIS OF BAND THEORY OF SOLIDS)

Insulators Semiconductors Conductors

>3eV
1eV
 Properties of Insulators
These substances do not allow electricity to
pass through them e.g. Glass , wood

 They have high resistivity and very low

conductivity.
Conductivity σ ~ 10-11 – 10-19 S/m
Resistivity ρ ~ 1011 – 1019 Ωm

So these material cannot conduct because the

movement of the electrons from the valence
band to the conduction band is not possible.

At very high temperature some electrons may

move from valance band to conduction band so
that conductivity increases and resistivity
decreases.
 PROPERTIES OF CONDUCTORS
There is no forbidden gap between the valence
band and conduction band (overlapping of
bands) e.g. Gold, Aluminium, Silver, Copper etc.

Large number of free electrons available at

room temperature.

They have very low resistivity or very high

conductivity.
Conductivity σ ~ 102 – 108 S/m
Resistivity ρ ~ 10-2 – 10-8 Ωm

At normal temperature conductors have high

electrical conductivity but as the temperature
increases it’s conductivity decreases due to
increase in collision frequency of electrons.
 Properties of Semiconductors
In semiconductor the conduction band is empty
and the valence band is completely filled.

The forbidden gap between the two bands is very

small that is about 1eV. For Germanium, it is
0.72eV and for Silicon, it is 1.1eV.

They have resistivity or conductivity

values between those of conductors and
insulators.
Conductivity σ ~ 105 – 10-6 S/m
Resistivity ρ ~ 10-5 – 106 Ωm

At 0K temperature Semiconductors behave like

as insulators but as temperature increase, due to
transition of electron from valance band to
conduction band it’s conductivity increases.
 TYPES OF SEMICONDUCTOR

➤ Semiconductor

➤ Intrinsic Semiconductor
➤ Extrinsic Semiconductor
➤ [Ge, Si]

➤ N-Type ➤ P-Type
➤ Pentavalent Impurity ➤ Trivalent Impurity
➤ (P, As, Sb) ➤ (B, In, Al)
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➤ Majority Carriers: Electrons ➤ Majority Carriers: Holes
INTRINSIC SEMICONDUCTOR

Ge and Si are considered to be the basic semiconductors. Si has better

thermal stability. These have four valence electrons.

Silicon is the most commonly used to build semiconductor devices.

The lattice structure of Ge/Si is also known as the diamond-like structures.

Each atom is surrounded by four nearest neighbours. In its crystalline
structure, every Si or Ge atom tends to share one of its four valence electrons
with each of its four nearest neighbour atoms, and also to take share of one
electron from each such neighbour. These shared electron pairs are referred
to as forming a covalent bond or simply a valence bond.
 Intrinsic Semiconductor......
As temperature increases, more thermal energy
becomes available to these electrons and some of
these electrons may break covalent bond (becoming
free electrons contributing to conduction). The
thermal energy effectively ionises only a few atoms
in the crystalline lattice and creates a vacancy in the
bond.
The neighbourhood, from which the free electron
(with charge –q) has come out leaves a vacancy with
an effective charge (+q ). This vacancy with the
effective positive electronic charge is called a hole.
The hole behaves as an apparent free particle with
effective positive charge.
In intrinsic semiconductors, the number of free
electrons, ne is equal to the number of holes, nh .
ne = nh =ni
where ni is called intrinsic carrier concentration.
 Intrinsic Semiconductor......

At T=0K At T>0K,
Semiconductor behave like an Thermally generated electron-
insulator hole

Note: The conductivity of intrinsic semiconductor is poor because of thermally

generated e-hole pair, which are less in number .
 Extrinsic Semiconductor.

At room temperature the conductivity of intrinsic semiconductor is very low.

To increase their conductivity a small amount, only a few parts per million
(ppm), of a suitable impurity is added to the pure semiconductor, the conductivity
of the semiconductor is increased. Such materials are known as Extrinsic
Semiconductor. The deliberate addition of a desirable impurity is called doping
and the impurity atoms are called dopants.

The dopant has to be such that it does not distort the original pure
semiconductor lattice. A necessary condition to attain this is that the sizes of the
dopant and the semiconductor atoms should be nearly the same.
 Intrinsic & Extrinsic Semiconductor: Comparison
Energy Band: N-type P-type
Intrinsic Semiconductor

Intrinsic Semiconductor N-Type P-Type

Intrinsic
Semiconductor N-type P-type

Free
electron
 N-Type Semiconductor.
In such semiconductor we dope Si or Ge with a pentavalent element (P, As, Sb) of
+5 valence element that occupies the position of an atom in the crystal lattice of Si,
four of its electrons bond with the four silicon neighbours while the fifth remains very
weakly bound to its parent atom. The ionisation energy required to set this electron
free is very small and even at room temperature it will be free to move in the lattice of
the semiconductor. For example, the energy required is ~ 0.01 eV for germanium, and
0.05 eV for silicon, to separate this electron from its atom.

Thus, the pentavalent dopant is donating one extra electron for conduction and
hence is known as donor impurity. The number of electrons made available for
conduction by dopant atoms depends strongly upon the doping level and is
independent of any increase in ambient temperature.
 P-Type Semiconductor.
In such semiconductor, Si or Ge is doped with a trivalent impurity like Al, B, In, etc.
The dopant has one valence electron less than Si or Ge and, therefore, this atom can
form covalent bonds with neighbouring three Si atoms but does not have any
electron to offer to the fourth Si atom. So the bond between the fourth neighbour and
the trivalent atom has a vacancy or hole. Thus the hole is available for conduction.

 The dopant atom of p-type material can be treated as core of one negative charge
along with its associated hole. So that one acceptor atom gives one hole. These
holes are in addition to the intrinsically generated holes while the source of
conduction electrons is only intrinsic generation. Thus, for such a material, the
holes are the majority carriers and electrons are minority carriers.
 FERMI DIRAC DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION
(FERMI FUNCTION)
➢Electrons are fermions (Fermi particles) . Fermi particles are those for which spin is half
integer particle and obeys Pauli exclusion principle.
➢This distribution function describes the occupation probability for fermi particles in a
quantum state of energy E at a temp T. This is expressed as:

This fermi function f(E) gives the probability of finding the

electron in a particular energy state of energy E at
temperature T, where
 FERMI DIRAC DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION

Case 1:Probability of occupation at T=0K

At absolute zero temperature, a pair of electrons, one with spin up and the
other with spin down occupy the lowest level. The next pair of electrons
occupy the next higher level and so on, till all the electrons of the metal are
accommodated.
The highest occupied energy level is called fermi level and the energy of
the electrons in the fermi level at absolute zero degree is called fermi
energy (Ef).

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1
 FERMI DIRAC DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION

Special Cases:
(a) For E < Ef at T=0K
For energy levels E lying below E f, the
T0 =0K
term (E-Ef) takes a negative value.
Hence, the argument (E-Ef)/kT in the
exponential function becomes -. T3T2T1T0
Therefore
1 1 1
f E    E f  E / kT
 
 1
1 e 1 e 1 0

F(E) = 1 implies that, all the energy levels below E f are occupied by electrons
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2
 FERMI DIRAC DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION

Special Cases:
(b) For E >Ef at T=0K
For energy levels E above E f, the term
T0 =0K
(E-Ef) takes a positive value. Hence,
the argument (E-Ef)/kT in the
exponential function becomes . T3T2T1T0
Therefore
1 1 1
f E   E  E f / kT  
 0
1 e 1 e 1 

F(E) = 0 implies that, all the energy levels above E f are vacant.
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 FERMI DIRAC DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION
Case 2: probability of occupation at T>0K
At ordinary temperature (room
temperature), the value of probability
starts reducing from 1 for values of E close
T0 =0K
to but smaller than Ef and increases from 0
for values of E close to but larger than E f. T3T2T1T0

At any other temperature T>0 K

For E = Ef, the argument (E-Ef)/kT in the
exponential function becomes 0.
1 1 1
f E   0
 
1 e 1 1 2

Thus at any other temperature T K the energy of that energy level for
which the probability of its occupation by electron is 50% is called as
Fermi energy.
 HALL EFFECT
 In 1879, Hall discovered that, “ If a piece of
current carrying conductor/semiconductor
is placed in a transverse magnetic field, an
electric field is generated inside the
conductor/semiconductor in a direction
perpendicular to both the current and
magnetic field.”

 This phenomenon is known as “Hall Effect”

and the induced electric field is known as the
“Hall Field”. 2
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 HALL EFFECT (THEORY)
 We consider a rectangular specimen of an
semiconductor/conductor material carrying
current ‘I’ in the positive x-direction.
 Let a magnetic field of induction (Bz) be
applied along the positive z-direction.
 Due to the applied electric field (Ex) in x-
direction the electron will be drifting in the
negative x-direction and holes in (+x)
direction.

 Let q be the charge on carriers and vd be their

drift velocity. Fig: Experimental set up of Hall Effect
2
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 HALL EFFECT (THEORY)
Due to external magnetic field Bz a force
known as Lorentz force will be act on the Hence, a potential called Hall voltage (V H)
moving charge carriers
is developed between these surfaces,
which establishes an electric field
(i) For n-type semiconductor (charge carries: between these two faces as “Hall electric
electrons)
field (EH)” in (-)ve y-direction.

Putting these values in equation (1), we get

This force displaces the electrons along the (-

ve) y- direction, i.e., lower surface collects
electron and become negatively charged and
upper surface, becomes positively charged
due to loss of electrons.
 HALL EFFECT (THEORY)
This Hall field exerts an electric force (FE) on the electron in the (+)ve y
direction,   
i.e., FE qE  eE H
….(3)
 
In steady stateF  F
L E

...(4)
Putting the values
 inequation (4) from equation (2) & (3), we get
 evd  x Bz z   ( eEH )
   
EH  vd  x Bz z  vd Bz ( y )
…(5)

EH vd Bz
…(6)
 HALL EFFECT (THEORY)
(ii) For p-type semiconductor (charge carries: Hence, a potential called Hall voltage (V H)
holes) is developed between these surfaces,
which establishes an electric field
between these two faces as “Hall electric
field (EH)” in (+)ve y-direction.
Putting these values in equation (1), we get

….(7)
This force displaces the holes along the (-ve)
y- direction, i.e., lower surface collects holes
and become positively charged and upper
surface, becomes negatively charged due to
loss of holes.
 HALL EFFECT (THEORY)
This Hall field exerts an electric force (FE) on the holes in the (+)ve y direction,
i.e.,   
FE qE eE H ...(8)

In steady state
 
FL  FE ...(9)
Putting the values in equation (4) from equation (2) & (3), we get
  
evd x Bz z   (eEH )
   
E H  vd x Bz z  vd Bz ( y ) …(10)
HALL EFFECT (THEORY)

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 HALL EFFECT (THEORY)

This is known as negative Hall Effect.

For Holes Hall coefficient (RH)= 1/nhe This is known as positive Hall Effect.

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 HALL EFFECT (THEORY)

Mobility of electrons

Conductivity of Semiconductors

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HALL EFFECT (THEORY)
Comparison of n-type and p-type
semiconductor

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APPLICATION OF HALL EFFECT

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