LED Technology 2024

Alex Neumüller | LED Technology 2024

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Chapter 2 – Semiconductor basics

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Semiconductor basics

After this chapter you should be able to answer these questions

• What is an electronic band structure?
• What is the difference between a semiconductor and a metal?
• How can we estimate the effective mass and what it is?
• What are the density of states? (Fermi function, carrier density)
„electrical“ à Part I
• When does a semiconductor become an LED?
• Shockley equation and the pn-junction, how can we work with it?
• Which effect does doping have on the pn-junction?
• What is a depletion region?

• What is a direct and indirect semiconductor?

• What is radiative electron-hole recombination?
• Why does an LED emits light? What is required for that?
• Is an LED a black body radiator? „optical“ à Part II

• Which losses can occur in an LED or in a semiconductor in general?

• …

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Chapter 2.1 – Seminconductor basics (electrical)

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Motivation à band gap engineering, the “holy grail” of LED development

à Focus topic for the chapter

about Epitaxy (by ams-OSRAM
experts)

To understand the underlaying

nature of semiconductors and their
manufacturability we need to
understand some basics about
them:

• band structure
• effective mass
• density of states
• Fermi-Dirac distribution
• doping
• charge carrier transport
• pn-junction
• defects

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What makes a semiconductor a semiconductor?
Band structure

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Resistivity vs. Temperature

Question
What causes this difference
in the conductivity?

(a) Resistivity versus temperature (c) Resistivity versus temperature

for a typical conductor. Notice the for a typical semiconductor. The
linear rise in resistivity with resistivity increases dramatically
increasing temperature (at all but as T → 0.
very low temperatures).
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 In this section we will answer the following two questions:

1. What happens if we bring atoms closer and closer together?

2. What is a “band structure”?

3. Is it possible to calculate the bandgap?

Band Theory of Solids

• In order to account for decreasing resistivity with increasing temperature as well as other properties
of semiconductors, a new theory known as the band theory is introduced.

• The essential feature of the band theory is that the allowed energy states for electrons are nearly
continuous over certain ranges, called energy bands, with forbidden energy gaps between the
bands

Derivation
1.) Consider initially the known wave functions of two hydrogen atoms far enough apart so that they
do not interact.

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Band Theory of Solids

2.) Interaction of the wave functions occurs as the atoms get closer:

Symmetric Antisymmetric

3.) An electron in the symmetric state has a nonzero probability of being halfway between the two
atoms, while an electron in the antisymmetric state has a zero probability of being at that location.

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Band Theory of Solids

4.) In the symmetric case the binding energy is slightly stronger resulting in a lower energy state.

• Thus, there is a splitting of all possible energy levels (1s, 2s, and so on).

Hydrogen atom energy

eigenvalues

distance
consideration from
atom to molecule to
solid The 1s and 2s energy-level splittings of approaching hydrogen atoms
for (a) 2 atoms and (b) much more atoms. Notice the splitting of each
energy level into a nearly continous band.

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Band Theory of Solids

5.) When more atoms are added (as in a real solid), there is a further splitting of energy levels. With a
large number of atoms, the levels are split into nearly continuous energy bands, with each band
consisting of a number of closely spaced energy levels.

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Band Theory of Solids

Two examples of band diagrams, we will talk later again about them (comp. direct and indirect
semiconductor)
• Si (left image) & GaAs (right image)
• Which one is a direct and which one is an indirect semiconductor?

Remark
• direct Semiconductor: Minimum of
conduction band and maximum of
valance band at same k→ vector
(necessary for optoelectronic
application)
• indirect Semiconductor: Minimum
of conduction band and maximum
of valence band at
different k→ vectors

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Is there a “simple” way to calculate the energy gap?

Not at all, but …

Band Theory of Solids - Kronig-Penney Model

An effective way to understand the energy gap in

semiconductors is to model the interaction between the
electrons and the structure of the crystal where atoms or
groups of atoms are arranged on nodes of a 3D periodic
lattice and vibrate around their equilibrium positions

R. de L. Kronig and W. G. Penney developed a useful

one-dimensional model of the electron lattice interaction in
1931.

Derivation
1.) Kronig and Penney assumed that an electron
experiences an infinite one-dimensional array of finite
potential wells.
2.) Each potential well models attraction to an atom in the b: equals the space between adjacent atoms
periodic structure, so the size of the wells must correspond a: is basically the “free“ space of an electron
roughly to the lattice spacing in element semiconductors.
3.) To solve this model knowledge of the “Bloch’s
theorem” is required.
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Band Theory of Solids - Kronig-Penney Model

4.) Since the electrons are not free their energies are less than the height V0 of each of the potentials,
but the electron is essentially free in the region 0 < x < a, where it has a wave function of the form
𝜓 = 𝐴𝑒 !"# + 𝐵𝑒 $!"#

5.) where the wave number k is given by the usual relation:

𝑘 % = 2𝑚𝐸/ℏ%

6.) In the region between a < x < a + b the electron can tunnel through, and the wave function loses
its oscillatory solution and becomes that of an evanescent wave
𝜓 = 𝐶𝑒 "# + 𝐷𝑒 $"# Question
How can we see that a wave
2𝑚(𝑉& − 𝐸)
𝑘% = function is oszillating or “just“
ℏ% decaying (evanescent wave)?

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Band Theory of Solids - Kronig-Penney Model

7.) Matching solutions at the boundary, Kronig and Penney find

% 𝜓 = 𝐴𝑒 ;<= + 𝐵𝑒 >;<=
𝑘 𝑏
2𝑘
sin 𝑘𝑎 + cos 𝑘𝑎 = cos(𝐾𝑎) 𝜓 = 𝐶𝑒 <= + 𝐷𝑒 ><=
8.) Here K is another wave number (substitution).

9.) The left-hand side is limited to values between +1 and −1 for all values of K.

10.) Plotting this it is observed there exist restricted (shaded) forbidden zones for solutions.
dotted curve:
allowed free electron
energy

Forbidden
energy
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Band Theory of Solids - Kronig-Penney Model

Important differences between the Kronig-Penney model and the single potential well

1) For an infinite crystal structure (translation periodic lattice) the allowed energies within each band
are continuous rather than discrete. In a real crystal the lattice is not infinite, but even if chains
are thousands of atoms long, the allowed energies are nearly continuous.

2) In a real three-dimensional crystal, it is appropriate to speak of a wave vector k . The allowed

ranges for k constitute what are referred to in solid state theory as Brillouin zones.

3) In a real crystal the potential function is more complicated than the Kronig-Penney squares.
Thus, the energy gaps are by no means uniform in size. The gap sizes can be changed by the
introduction of impurities or imperfections of the lattice.

These facts concerning the energy gaps are of highest importance in understanding the
electronic behavior of semiconductors.

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Band Theory of Solids

• Normally there exists in both insulators and

semiconductors a filled energy band (referred to
as the valence band) separated from the next
higher band (referred to as the conduction
band) by an energy gap.

• If this gap is at least several electron volts (eV),

the material is an insulator.

• For energy gaps smaller than several eV, it is

possible for enough electrons to be excited
thermally into the conduction band, so that an
applied electric field can produce a modest
current.
22 à The result is a semiconductor!
Can you now answer the question?

Question
What causes this difference
in the conductivity?

(a) Resistivity versus temperature (c) Resistivity versus temperature

for a typical conductor. Notice the for a typical semiconductor. The
linear rise in resistivity with resistivity increases dramatically
increasing temperature (at all but as T → 0.
very low temperatures).
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