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Module 6: Physics of Semiconductor Devices Lecture 32: Bonding in Solids

1) There are four main types of bonding in solids: ionic, covalent, molecular, and metallic. Ionic bonding involves the transfer of electrons between atoms. Covalent bonding is the sharing of electrons between atoms. 2) Silicon crystallizes in the same structure as diamond, with silicon atoms forming covalent bonds by sharing electrons to achieve a stable electron configuration. 3) When an electron moves through a crystal lattice, its effective mass takes into account the electron's motion under external forces as well as the periodic potential of the lattice. The effective mass can be defined based on the curvature of the electron energy bands.

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91 views8 pages

Module 6: Physics of Semiconductor Devices Lecture 32: Bonding in Solids

1) There are four main types of bonding in solids: ionic, covalent, molecular, and metallic. Ionic bonding involves the transfer of electrons between atoms. Covalent bonding is the sharing of electrons between atoms. 2) Silicon crystallizes in the same structure as diamond, with silicon atoms forming covalent bonds by sharing electrons to achieve a stable electron configuration. 3) When an electron moves through a crystal lattice, its effective mass takes into account the electron's motion under external forces as well as the periodic potential of the lattice. The effective mass can be defined based on the curvature of the electron energy bands.

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Module 6 : PHYSICS OF SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES

Lecture 32 : Bonding in Solids

Objectives
In this course you will learn the following

Bonding in solids.

Ionic and covalent bond.

Structure of Silicon

Concept of effective mass.

Bonding in Solids
Crystals can be classified on the basis of bonding of atoms to form a solid. There are primarily four types of
bonding in solids, viz., molecular, ionic, covalent and metallic bonds.
Molecular solids are formed by weak inter-molecular forces between molecules. Because of weak binding,
the solids have low melting points
Metallic solids are characterized by free electrons which move freely through the crystal being bonded to
different atoms at different times.
Ionic Bond
In ionic solids, one of the specis of atoms donates electrons to another specis so that each of the atoms may
become more stable by having a noble gas (octet) configuration of electrons. For instance in sodium chloride
crystal,

Sodium with an atomic number 11 has an electronic configuration while chlorine with the

atomic number 17 has the configuration . When the atoms come together, Na gives
away one electron and becomes positively ionized while Cl receives one electron and acquires a net negative
charge. The negative an the positive ions are held together by electrostatic interaction. Ionic solids are hard,
brittle, have high melting points and are poor electrical conductors.
Covalent Bond
Atoms can also achieve stable octet configuration by sharing of electrons. For instance, in forming hydrogen
molecule a pair of hydrogen atoms share two electrons.

Other examples of covalent bonded crystals are diamond, graphite, quartz (SiO ) etc. Covalently bonded

crystals are very hard, have high melting point ( diamond has a melting point of 3550 C) and are poor
electrical conductors. Each electron that is shared is attracted to both the nuclei.
Example-2
Draw a picture of bond formation in Methane molecule.
Solution

Methane molecule has one carbon atom with the configuration and requires four electrons

to complete octet. This is done by sharing two electrons with each of the hydrogen atom so that carbon atom
and all the hydrogen atoms are in noble gas configuration.

Exercise 1

Draw a picture of covalent band formation in Ammonia molecule.

(Hint : Nitrogen has 7 electrons with electronic configuration ).

Silicon, which is one of the prominent elemental semiconductors is in the same group as carbon in the
periodic table and like carbon, it has four valence electrons. These electrons form covalent bonds. Crystalline
silicon has the same structure as diamond. The structure of diamond consists of two interpenetrating face
centered cubic lattices which are displaced along the body diagonal by one fourth the distance.

Effective Mass

For a free electron moving under the action of an external force the equation of motion is given by
Identifying as the momentum of the particle, we have

We may, therefore, express the mass of the particle in terms of the second derivative of the energy with
respect to the wavenumber

The velocity of the particle can be expressed as

When an electron moves in a lattice (i.e. in a periodic potential), in addition to the external forces, it is
subjected to forces within the lattice. These foreces are generally quite large. We may write the equation of
motion for the electron in the lattices as

One can define the effective mass of the electron in a lattice to be mass of a particle, which, when
subjected to an external force would give an acceleration defined by eqn. (A), i.e.,

Using the expression for above, we can write

The effective mass is given by

For a band with anisotropy, (i.e., where relationship is not spherically symmetric), the effective

mass is direction dependent


Note that unlike real mass, the effective mass can even be negative as it is proportional to the curvature of
the band.

Example-3
Calculate the effective mass for a simple cubic lattice whose band structure is given by

at the point (0,0,0) of the k-space.


Solution

Because of symmetry, we have is the same for all and for . Thus

On the other hand is given by


Example-4

The relationship near the conduction band of GaAS is given by

where . How does it affect the effective mass of electrons near the conduction band minimum ?

Solution
We have

Thus

For values of removed from , increases with .


Exercise 2

Which one of the bands has higher effective mass near ?

Exercise 3

The energy of an electron in the valence band of a certain one dimensional semiconductor may be written as

where and are constants. Sketch the variation of the energy and of the effective mass of the

electron as functions of . Calculate the effective mass at and at given that


Åand eV.

(Ans. kg)

Exercise 4

Electrons in a two dimensional square lattice are in a band whose structure is given by

where and are constants. Analyze the behaviour of electrons near the centre (0,0) and at the

edges ( ) of the Brillouin zone and show that near these points, the structure may be

approximated as

where is the effective mass. Determine the value of the effective mass at .

(Ans. kg)

Exercise 5

The relationship for the conduction band of Ge is given by

where is the energy of the bottom of the conduction band. The longitudinal effective mass is 1.6

times the free electron mass while the transverse effective mass is 0.082 times the free electron mass.

Show that the energy surface is an ellipsoid of revolution with the major and minor axes being respectively

and .

Recap
In this course you have learnt the following

Atoms combine to form solids through different types of bonds such as ionic, covalent, molecular and
metallic bonds.

In ionic solids, atoms give out and receive electrons so that each atom completes octet configuration.
Semiconductors such as silicon and germanium are bonded covalently. In such bonding the atoms share
electrons so that each one completes octet.

The effect of lattice potential on an otherwise free electron can be taken into account by defining an effective
mass. Effective mass is proportional to the curvature of the band.

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